Systems and methods for vehicle resource management

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media provide for allocating vehicle resources to future vehicle requirements. In some embodiments, allocating a vehicle resource to a vehicle requirement may be based on an iterative analysis of candidate vehicle resources using one or more of: a suitability of a candidate vehicle resource to fullfill the vehicle requirement, a journey time from a vehicle location to a start location, and/or a start time for the vehicle requirement.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the management of vehicle resources inrelation to vehicle requirements, and in particular relates to analysingthe suitability of dynamic sets of vehicle resources for future vehiclerequirements.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

In the field of fleet vehicle management (e.g., delivery trucks, privatehire vehicles, and taxis), historically vehicles and drivers wereallocated to bookings by a human operator, called a controller. Thecontroller would be in contact with the drivers of vehicles of a fleetby voice channels (typically one shared voice channel) of a radiosystem, through which the controller and the drivers could speak withone another. The controller could ascertain the locations of drivers byrequesting the drivers to provide their locations verbally. Thecontroller could also enquire of drivers when they expected to droppassengers and thus become free again for fulfilling a booking. Driverswould be provided with details of bookings allocated to them by thecontroller verbally through the radio system. Such manual systems arestill widely in use.

Some third parties provide automatic allocation of instant bookings butdo not provide automatic allocation of advanced bookings or other typesof future vehicle requirements. Techniques used in automatic allocationof instant bookings are generally not applicable to automatic allocationof future vehicle requirements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of exampleonly, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system for management of a pluralityof vehicle resources according to various aspects of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2a is an example representation of a geographical area includinglocations of a plurality of vehicle resources and locations to beserviced, according to various aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 2b is an example representation of the geographical area of FIG. 2ashowing locations of the plurality of vehicle resources and locations tobe serviced, at a later time, according to various aspects of thepresent invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating an example operation of a system forallocating a vehicle resource of a dynamically determined set ofcandidate resource vehicles, according to various aspects of the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating calculating a score for a vehicleresource with respect to a vehicle request;

FIG. 5a is a schematic diagram of a system for management of a privatehire vehicle service according to various aspects of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5b is a schematic diagram of a system for management of a privatehire vehicle service according to various aspects of the presentinvention;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating overall operation of a system infulfilling a booking through providing a private hire vehicle; and

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating components of a server inaccordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SOME EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

In brief, various embodiments of the present invention allow forvehicles and other types of vehicle resources to be allocated to vehiclerequests and other types of vehicle requirements in a way that provideseffective management of a fleet of vehicles whilst minimising distancetravelled by vehicles in fulfilling the vehicle requests.Advantageously, one or more embodiments of the present invention providefor the above benefits whilst providing a relatively low burden oncomputer system resources that perform the allocation.

In accordance with some embodiments, a pool of candidate vehicles isidentified (e.g., from a total fleet of vehicles) in a low computationalcost manner. The candidate vehicles may be assessed, in accordance withone or more embodiments, for their suitability for a given vehiclerequest.

In one or more embodiments, a most suitable vehicle for an advancevehicle request (e.g., a requirement for a vehicle to be at a specifiedlocation at a later time) is identified and allocated to fulfil theadvance vehicle request. In accordance with some embodiments, thevehicle is allocated only when it is determined that the vehicle needsto be allocated, such as to meet a timing requirement associated withthe advance vehicle request. In one embodiment, a specific vehicle maynot be allocated to an advance vehicle request until it is determined(e.g., by a vehicle resource allocation server) that a specific vehicleneeds to be allocated at that time in order to have the vehicle reach afirst requested location associated with the advance vehicle request bya certain time. A first requested location may be referred to in thisdisclosure as a ‘start location,’ even if that location is the onlyrequested location.

In one example, a specific police vehicle may not be allocatedautomatically to fulfil a scheduled requirement for a police vehicle tobe at a requested location (e.g., an intersection where construction istaking place, in order to provide for traffic control) until a vehicleresource allocation system determines when a vehicle must be allocatedin order to have a vehicle arrive at the specific location on time(e.g., in accordance with the scheduled time). The determination of whenthe vehicle needs to be allocated may be based on, in accordance withsome embodiments: iterative and/or real-time monitoring of statusesand/or locations of a pool of available vehicles, and/or one or moretiming factors (e.g., current time, start time for the request, journeytimes for candidate vehicles). In another example, a system forallocating private hire vehicles may not allocate a particular one of afleet of private hire vehicles to fulfil an advance customer bookinguntil the system automatically determines, based on the then-availablepool of vehicles potentially able to fulfil the booking (e.g., thosewithin a suitable range of the requested pickup location) and one ormore timing and/or other factors (as described with respect to variousembodiments in this disclosure), that a vehicle needs to be allocated inorder to arrive at the requested pickup location in time to fulfil thebooking.

In accordance with some embodiments, because advanced processing isperformed only for the most suitable candidate vehicle, the relativelycomputationally expensive process of determining road journey times isperformed a relatively small number of times.

In some embodiments, before actual allocation (e.g., before anallocation time determined automatically by an allocation system), eachcandidate vehicle may be reassessed such that a different vehicle may befound to be the most suitable vehicle, and/or the makeup of the set ofcandidate vehicles to be analysed may be reassessed based on variousfactors.

In accordance with some embodiments, in meeting requests for vehicleresources, the vehicle resource allocation system assigns vehicles toparticular locations (e.g., requested destinations or objectives) suchthat vehicles of a fleet may not only be allocated efficiently (e.g.,the most suitable vehicle is allocated to a request), but the allocationprocess itself may be configured to make an allocation at an optimisedtime. Moreover, in some embodiments, these advantages may be achievedautomatically.

The inventors have recognized that the automatic allocation of futurevehicle requirements is a very different process from the manual processfor bookings that was used previously, and introduces many challenges.Improved allocation can provide positive effects in a number of areasincluding the processing, memory and other computing and communicationresources that are required. Reassessment and allocation of the mostsuitable vehicle at a relatively late time allows better use of thevehicle and other resources of the fleet. Other effects can includeimproved vehicle fleet utilisation and lower distances traveled infulfilling customer bookings. Advance requests (e.g., scheduleddeliveries, advance private hire taxi bookings) also can be met moreefficiently. This also contributes to minimizing distances traveled bythe vehicles of a fleet, reducing fuel costs, improved vehicleutilisation, reduced vehicle wear and tear, and reduced driver fatigue.Further advantages can be felt in terms of customer satisfaction anddriver wellbeing and happiness.

A vehicle resource allocation system, in accordance with someembodiments, allocates vehicles to one or more particular locations,such as in response to a request for a vehicle resource received over acommunication network, and/or in response to another indication of aneed (or potential need) for a vehicle resource at a particularlocation. Requests for vehicle resources may include any number ofparticular locations, such as in the case where a vehicle is assigned atask to transport goods and/or people from a first location (e.g., apickup location) to a second location (e.g., a drop-off location), or totravel a particular route including two or more specific locations(e.g., points of interest, patrol waypoints).

Various types of vehicle resources may be managed in accordance withvarious aspects of the present invention. In one example, public and/orprivate service providers (e.g., police, medical service providers,security, utility service providers, delivery service providers), mayneed to allocate vehicles (e.g., police vehicles, delivery vehicles) tospecific locations. In another example, a vehicle resource allocationsystem of a private hire booking service may allocate vehicles (e.g.,private taxis) to pick up and drop off travelers.

Vehicle resources may include, by way of example and without limitation,land vehicles (e.g., cars, trucks, taxis, construction equipment, etc.),watercraft (e.g., boats, ships, etc.), aircraft (e.g., airplanes,helicopters, aerial drones, etc.), and/or spacecraft. Although someexample vehicles discussed in this disclosure are described as havingdrivers, it will be readily understood that vehicles that may beallocated in accordance with embodiments of the present invention may bemanned or autonomous (unmanned), may be operated by a human operatorwith the vehicle, and/or may be operated remotely by a human and/orcomputer operator.

In accordance with some embodiments, a vehicle resource allocationcontroller device for allocating vehicle resources is adapted to executea vehicle resource allocation module for dynamically allocating vehicleresources (e.g., in response to vehicle requests) by performing one ormore of the operations described in this disclosure. In someembodiments, the vehicle resource allocation controller device maydetermine respective locations associated with each of a plurality ofvehicle resources. For example, the associated location may comprise acurrent geolocation of a vehicle (e.g., determined by receivinggeolocation information about the location of a vehicle resource deviceassociated with the vehicle resource). In another example, theassociated location may comprise a destination location to which avehicle is currently heading (or at which it is expected to arrive atsome later time), such as a location requested in a previous vehiclerequest. In some embodiments, the vehicle resource allocation controllerdevice may be in communication with a plurality of vehicle resourcedevices (e.g., that are in or are in communication with vehicleresources) and/or with a plurality of requester devices (e.g., for useby requesters to make vehicle requests).

In accordance with some embodiments, systems and apparatus forallocating networked vehicle resources provide for one or more of:

-   -   a plurality of vehicle resource devices (e.g., each vehicle        resource device being associated with a respective vehicle        resource of a plurality of vehicle resources);    -   a plurality of requester devices (e.g., each requester device        being associated with a respective requester of vehicle        resources);    -   a vehicle resource allocation controller device;    -   a priority location (‘hot spot’) database;    -   a vehicle resource allocation module;    -   a vehicle resource database;    -   a vehicle resource location monitoring module;    -   a priority location module for managing information about and/or        defining hot spots;    -   a map and/or location database; and/or    -   at least one location service (e.g., a global positioning system        (GPS), a Wi-Fi® network device-based location service).

In accordance with some embodiments, systems, methods, apparatus, andcomputer-readable media for allocating a vehicle resource to a futurevehicle requirement provide for:

-   -   calculating a score for each candidate vehicle resource in a        pool of candidate vehicle resources, based on a vehicle request;    -   calculating a journey time from a vehicle location associated        with at least one candidate vehicle resource (e.g., a current        location, an expected destination location) to a start location        associated with a vehicle request;    -   repeating (e.g., periodically, according to a schedule, and/or        at a predetermined time) the calculating of the score and the        journey time for the candidate vehicle resource, until        determining there is a need to allocate a specific vehicle        resource to the vehicle request; and    -   upon determining there is a need to allocate a specific vehicle        resource to the vehicle request, allocating a vehicle resource        of the pool of candidate vehicle resources to the vehicle        request (e.g., allocating the vehicle resource having the best        score of the scores calculated most recently).

In accordance with some embodiments, systems, methods, apparatus, andcomputer-readable media for allocating a vehicle resource to a futurevehicle requirement provide for:

-   -   forming a pool of candidate vehicle resources for possible        fulfillment of a vehicle request;    -   calculating a respective score for each candidate vehicle        resource in the pool of candidate vehicle resources, based on        the vehicle request;    -   for one or more of the candidate vehicle resources in the pool        of candidate vehicle resources, calculating a respective journey        time from a respective vehicle location associated with the        candidate vehicle resource to a start location associated with        the vehicle request;    -   automatically determining it is time to allocate a vehicle        resource to the vehicle request, based on the respective scores        calculated for the candidate vehicle resources of the pool of        candidate vehicle resources and the calculated one or more        respective journey times; and    -   upon determining it is time to allocate a vehicle resource to        the vehicle request, allocating a vehicle resource of the pool        of candidate vehicle resources to the vehicle request.

In accordance with some embodiments, systems, methods, apparatus, andcomputer-readable media for allocating a vehicle resource to a futurevehicle requirement provide for:

-   -   determining that a current time has a predetermined relationship        with respect to a start time associated with a first vehicle        request;    -   forming a pool of candidate vehicle resources for possible        fulfillment of the first vehicle request;    -   for each candidate vehicle resource in the pool of candidate        vehicle resources, calculating a respective first score that is        related to the suitability of the candidate vehicle resource to        fulfil the first vehicle request;    -   for one or more of the candidate vehicle resources in the pool        of candidate vehicle resources, calculating a respective first        journey time from a respective first vehicle location associated        with the candidate vehicle resource to a start location        associated with the first vehicle request;    -   for each candidate vehicle resource in the pool of candidate        vehicle resources, calculating a respective second score that is        related to the suitability of the candidate vehicle resource to        fulfil the first vehicle request;    -   for one or more of the candidate vehicle resources in the pool        of candidate vehicle resources, calculating a respective second        journey time from a respective second vehicle location        associated with the candidate vehicle resource to the start        location associated with the first vehicle request;    -   determining that there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource        to the first vehicle request, using both:        -   1) the respective second scores calculated for the candidate            vehicle resources of the pool of candidate vehicle            resources, and        -   2) the calculated one or more respective second journey            times;    -   after determining that there is a need to allocate a vehicle        resource to the first vehicle request, allocating to the first        vehicle request a vehicle resource of the pool of candidate        vehicle resources based on the respective second score for the        vehicle resource.

In accordance with some embodiments, systems, methods, apparatus, andcomputer-readable media for allocating a vehicle resource to a futurevehicle requirement provide for:

-   -   a) storing (e.g., by a vehicle resource allocation controller        device), plural vehicle requirements in the form of plural        vehicle requests, each vehicle request including at least a        respective start time and a respective start location;    -   b) for a first vehicle request of the plural vehicle requests,        automatically determining that a current time has a        predetermined relationship with respect to the start time of the        first vehicle request;    -   c) in response to the determining at step b), forming a pool of        candidate vehicle resources for possible fulfillment of the        first vehicle request;    -   d) for each candidate vehicle resource in the pool of candidate        vehicle resources, calculating a respective score that is        related to the suitability of the candidate vehicle resource to        fulfil the first vehicle request;    -   e) for one or more of the candidate vehicle resources in the        pool of candidate vehicle resources, calculating a respective        journey time from the candidate vehicle resource's associated        vehicle location to the start location included in the first        vehicle request;    -   f) determining whether there is a need to allocate a vehicle        resource to the first vehicle request, using both:        -   1) the respective scores calculated for the candidate            vehicle resources of the pool of candidate vehicle            resources, and        -   2) the calculated one or more respective journey times;    -   g) performing steps d), e) and f) at least two times for the        first vehicle request until it is determined at step f) that        there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first        vehicle request; and    -   h) on determining at step f) that there is a need to allocate a        vehicle resource to the first vehicle request, allocating to the        first vehicle request a vehicle resource of the pool of        candidate vehicle resources based on the respective scores        calculated on last performance of step d).

In one or more embodiments, allocating a vehicle resource may compriseallocating the vehicle resource determined to have had the bestcalculated score.

In accordance with some embodiments, calculating a journey time may beperformed for some but not all of the candidate vehicles in a pool ofcandidate vehicles.

In one or more embodiments, the forming of a pool of candidate vehicleresources may be performed two or more times (e.g., until it isdetermined that there is a need to allocate a specific vehicle resourceto a vehicle request). For example, the pool of candidate vehicle may bereassessed and modified for subsequent analysis (e.g., calculating ofscores and/or journey times).

In some embodiments, calculating a journey time from the first locationmay comprise calculating a journey time from a current location of thevehicle to a pickup location included in the first vehicle request, orit may comprise calculating a journey time from a drop-off location of acustomer booking that the vehicle is currently fulfilling to the startlocation for the first vehicle request (e.g., a pickup location for adifferent customer booking that is yet to be allocated).

In some embodiments, calculating a journey time may comprise, for agiven vehicle resource, choosing between one of the following (e.g.,based on a status of the vehicle resource):

-   -   1) calculating a journey time from the vehicle resource's        associated location by calculating a journey time from a current        location of the vehicle to the start location for the vehicle        request (e.g., a start location included in the vehicle        request), and    -   2) calculating a journey time from the vehicle resource's        associated location by calculating a journey time from a        destination location (e.g., a patrol waypoint, a drop-off        location for a private hire taxi customer) that the vehicle is        currently fulfilling to the start location for the first vehicle        request.

In some embodiments, determining that a current time has a predeterminedrelationship with respect to the start time of a vehicle request maycomprise determining that the current time is at least approximately apredetermined time before the start time of the first vehicle request(e.g., is between 15 and 40 minutes before the start time of the firstbooking). The predetermined time may be dependent, for example, on thestart location for the vehicle request.

According to some embodiments, forming a pool of plural candidatevehicles for possible fulfillment of a vehicle request may compriserejecting vehicles of a fleet that have a status that is inconsistentwith the vehicle potentially being able to fulfil the vehicle request.

In some embodiments, forming a pool of plural candidate vehicles forpossible fulfillment of a vehicle request may comprise selecting apredetermined number of candidate vehicles that are geographicallyclosest to the start location associated with the vehicle request.

In some embodiments, forming a pool of plural candidate vehicles forpossible fulfillment of a vehicle request may comprise calculating adirect distance between vehicles of the fleet and a start locationassociated with the vehicle request.

In some embodiments, forming a pool of plural candidate vehicles forpossible fulfillment of a vehicle request may comprise selecting apredetermined number of candidate vehicles that are geographicallyclosest to a requested location included in the vehicle request in termsof the direct distance between the candidate vehicles of the fleet andthe requested location included in the vehicle request. In onenon-limiting example, the predetermined number may be between 10 and100.

In some embodiments, calculating a score that is related to thesuitability of a vehicle to fulfil a vehicle request may comprisecalculating sub scores for each of plural factors and performing amathematical operation on the sub scores.

In one or more embodiments, forming a pool of plural candidate vehiclesfor possible fulfillment of a vehicle request may comprise calculating adirect distance between vehicles of the fleet and a start locationassociated with the vehicle request and wherein calculating a journeytime from a respective location associated with each candidate vehicleto the start location may comprise using a map database.

In some embodiments, calculating a journey time from a locationassociated with a vehicle resource to a start location for the vehiclerequest may comprise using a map database.

In one or more embodiments, calculating a journey time from a locationassociated with a vehicle resource to a start location for the vehiclerequest may comprise using historical or current data about trafficdelays on one or more routes between a current location of the vehicleand the start location.

In some embodiments, calculating a journey time from a locationassociated with a vehicle resource to a start location for the vehiclerequest may comprise using historical or current data about trafficdelays or average speeds on one or more routes between the locationassociated with the vehicle resource to a start location for the vehiclerequest, to calculate a fastest route between the location associatedwith a vehicle resource to a start location for the vehicle request.

In one or more embodiments, determining whether there is a need toallocate a specific vehicle to a vehicle request may comprisedetermining whether a calculated journey time from a location associatedwith a vehicle resource to a start location for the vehicle request fora vehicle determined to have a corresponding score better than scoresfor other vehicles in the pool of candidate vehicles meets apredetermined relationship with respect to a time remaining from thecurrent time to the start time of the vehicle request.

In some embodiments, determining whether there is a need to allocate avehicle to a vehicle request may comprise determining whether the sum ofan allocation buffer value and a calculated journey time from a locationassociated with a vehicle resource to a start location for the vehiclerequest for a vehicle determined to have a corresponding score betterthan scores for other vehicles in the pool of candidate vehicles meets apredetermined relationship with respect to a time remaining from thecurrent time to the start time of the vehicle request.

According to some embodiments, operations for allocating a vehicleresource to a future vehicle requirement may comprise:

-   -   performing steps for calculating scores, calculating journey        times, and determining whether there is a need to allocate a        vehicle request, at least two times for the vehicle request        until it is determined that there is a need to allocate the        vehicle request; and    -   then allocating to the vehicle request the vehicle determined to        have had the best score on last performance of calculating        scores.

In accordance with some embodiments, systems, methods, apparatus, andcomputer-readable media for allocating a vehicle resource to a futurevehicle requirement provide for:

-   -   a) storing plural vehicle requirements in the form of plural        customer bookings, each customer booking including at least a        start time and a pickup location;    -   b) in respect of a first customer booking, automatically        determining that a current time has a predetermined relationship        with respect to the start time of the first booking;    -   c) in response to the determining, forming a pool of plural        candidate vehicles for possible fulfillment of the customer        booking, wherein the pool of candidate vehicles may comprise        fewer than the number of vehicles that are available to fulfil        the booking;    -   d) for each vehicle in the pool of candidate vehicles,        calculating a score that is related to the suitability of the        vehicle to fulfil the booking;    -   e) for one or more of the vehicles in the pool of candidate        vehicles, calculating a journey time from a first location to        the pickup location included in the first booking;    -   f) using both:        -   1) the scores calculated for the vehicles of the pool of            candidate vehicles, and        -   2) the calculated one or more journey times,    -   to determine whether there is a need to allocate the first        booking;    -   g) performing steps d), e) and f) at least two times for the        first booking until it is determined at step f) that there is a        need to allocate the first booking; and    -   h) following g), allocating to the first booking the vehicle        determined to have had the best score or one of the best scores        on last performance of step d).

The invention also provides apparatus for allocating a vehicle resourceto a future vehicle requirement, the apparatus comprising meansconfigured for:

-   -   a) storing plural vehicle requirements in the form of plural        customer bookings, each customer booking including at least a        start time and a pickup location;    -   b) in respect of a first customer booking, automatically        determining that a current time has a predetermined relationship        with respect to the start time of the first booking;    -   c) in response to the determining, forming a pool of plural        candidate vehicles for possible fulfillment of the customer        booking, wherein the pool of candidate vehicles may comprise        fewer than the number of vehicles that are available to fulfil        the booking;    -   d) for each vehicle in the pool of candidate vehicles,        calculating a score that is related to the suitability of the        vehicle to fulfil the booking;    -   e) for one or more of the vehicles in the pool of candidate        vehicles, calculating a journey time from a first location to        the pickup location included in the first booking;    -   f) using both:        -   1) the scores calculated for the vehicles of the pool of            candidate vehicles, and        -   2) the calculated one or more journey times,    -   to determine whether there is a need to allocate the first        booking;    -   g) performing steps d), e) and f) at least two times for the        first booking until it is determined at step f) that there is a        need to allocate the first booking; and    -   h) following g), allocating to the first booking the vehicle        determined to have had the best score or one of the best scores        on last performance of step d).

The means configured for performing step h) may comprise meansconfigured for allocating the vehicle determined to have had the bestscore on the last performance of step d) to the first booking.

The apparatus may comprise means configured for performing step e) forsome but not all of the vehicles in the pool of vehicles formed at stepc).

The means configured for calculating a journey time from the firstlocation may comprise means configured for calculating a journey timefrom a current location of the vehicle to the pickup location includedin the first booking.

The means configured for calculating a journey time from the firstlocation may comprise means configured for calculating a journey timefrom a drop-off location of a customer booking that the vehicle iscurrently fulfilling to the vehicle to the pickup location included inthe first booking. The apparatus may comprise means configured forchoosing between:

-   -   1) calculating a journey time from the first location by        calculating a journey time from a current location of the        vehicle to the pickup location included in the first booking,        and    -   2) calculating a journey time from the first location by        calculating a journey time from a drop-off location of a        customer booking that the vehicle is currently fulfilling to the        vehicle to the pickup location included in the first booking,        based on a status of the vehicle.

The means configured for determining that a current time has apredetermined relationship with respect to the start time of the firstbooking may comprise means configured for determining that the currenttime is at least approximately a predetermined time before the starttime of the first booking, for instance is between 15 and 40 minutesbefore the start time of the first booking. The predetermined time maybe dependent on the pickup location for the first booking.

The means configured for forming a pool of plural candidate vehicles forpossible fulfillment of the first booking may comprise means configuredfor rejecting vehicles of the fleet that have a status that isinconsistent with the vehicle potentially being able to fulfil thebooking.

The means configured for forming a pool of plural candidate vehicles forpossible fulfillment of the first booking may comprise means configuredfor selecting a predetermined number of candidate vehicles that aregeographically closest to the pickup location included in the firstbooking. The means configured for forming a pool of plural candidatevehicles for possible fulfilment of the first booking may comprise meansconfigured for calculating a direct distance between vehicles of thefleet and the pickup location included in the first booking. The meansconfigured for forming a pool of plural candidate vehicles for possiblefulfilment of the first booking may comprise means configured forselecting a predetermined number of candidate vehicles that aregeographically closest to the pickup location included in the firstbooking in terms of the direct distance between the candidate vehiclesof the fleet and the pickup location included in the first booking. Thepredetermined number may be between 10 and 100.

The means configured for performing step g) may comprise meansconfigured for performing steps c), d), e) and f) at least two times forthe first booking until it is determined at step f) that there is a needto allocate the first booking

The means configured for calculating a score that is related to thesuitability of the vehicle to fulfil the booking may comprise meansconfigured for calculating sub scores for each of plural factors andperforming a mathematical operation on the sub scores.

The means configured for forming a pool of plural candidate vehicles forpossible fulfillment of the first booking may comprise means configuredfor calculating a direct distance between vehicles of the fleet and thepickup location included in the first booking and wherein the meansconfigured for calculating a journey time from the first location to thepickup location included in the first booking may comprise meansconfigured for using a map database.

The means configured for calculating a journey time from the firstlocation to the pickup location included in the first booking maycomprise means configured for using a map database.

The means configured for calculating a journey time from the firstlocation to the pickup location included in the first booking maycomprise means configured for using historical or current data abouttraffic delays on one or more routes between the current location of thevehicle and the pickup location included in the first booking

The means configured for calculating a journey time from the firstlocation to the pickup location included in the first booking maycomprise means configured for using historical or current data abouttraffic delays or average speeds on one or more routes between the firstlocation and the pickup location included in the first booking tocalculate a fastest route between the first location and the pickuplocation included in the first booking

The means configured for determining whether there is a need to allocatethe first booking may comprise means configured for determining whethera calculated journey time from the first location to the pickup locationincluded in the first booking for a vehicle determined in step d) to bebetter than scores for other vehicles in the pool of candidate vehiclesmeets a predetermined relationship with respect to a time remaining fromthe current time to the start time of the first booking.

The means configured for determining whether there is a need to allocatethe first booking may comprise means configured for determining whetherthe sum of an allocation buffer value and a calculated journey time fromthe first location to the pickup location included in the first bookingfor a vehicle determined in step d) to be better than scores for othervehicles in the pool of candidate vehicles meets a predeterminedrelationship with respect to a time remaining from the current time tothe start time of the first booking.

An apparatus, in accordance with some embodiments, may comprise meansconfigured for:

-   -   g) performing steps d), e) and f) at least two times for the        first booking until it is determined at step f) that there is a        need to allocate the first booking; and    -   h) following g), allocating the vehicle determined to have had        the best score on last performance of step d) to the first        booking.

In accordance with some embodiments, systems, methods, apparatus, andcomputer-readable media for allocating a vehicle resource to a futurevehicle requirement provide for:

-   -   identifying Y candidate vehicles that have potential to fulfil a        vehicle request,    -   scoring the Y candidate vehicles as to their suitability to        fulfil the vehicle request,    -   choosing Z of the Y candidate vehicles based on their scores,        wherein the value of Z is lower than the value of Y,    -   calculating road journey times for the Z vehicles (e.g., but not        for all Y vehicles),    -   using the calculated road journey time for at least one vehicle        to determine whether to allocate the vehicle, and    -   repeating the scoring and calculating steps until it is        determined to allocate the vehicle.

In accordance with some embodiments, identifying Y candidate vehiclesthat have potential to fulfil a vehicle request may be performed inresponse to detecting that a current time is a predetermined time aheadof a start time for the vehicle request.

In accordance with some embodiments, systems, methods, apparatus, andcomputer-readable media for allocating a vehicle resource to a futurevehicle requirement provide for:

-   -   calculating road journey times for one or more of Z vehicles        each associated with a location that meets a predetermined        criterion with respect to a start location for a vehicle request        (e.g., an assigned standby area for an emergency vehicle, a        pickup location for a private hire vehicle booking),    -   using the calculated road journey time for at least one vehicle        to determine whether to allocate the vehicle, and    -   repeating the calculating and using steps until it is determined        to allocate a vehicle to the booking.

In accordance with some embodiments, systems, methods, apparatus, andcomputer-readable media for allocating a vehicle resource to a futurevehicle requirement provide for:

-   -   identifying Y candidate vehicles that have potential to fulfil        the future vehicle requirement,    -   scoring the Y candidate vehicles as to their suitability to        fulfil the future vehicle requirement,    -   choosing Z of the Y candidate vehicles based on their scores,        wherein the value of Z is lower than the value of Y,    -   calculating road journey times for the Z vehicles but not for        all Y vehicles,    -   repeating the scoring and calculating steps at least once and        then allocating a vehicle to fulfil the future vehicle        requirement.

Another aspect of the invention provides apparatus for allocating avehicle resource to a future vehicle requirement, the apparatuscomprising means for:

-   -   responding to detecting that a current time is a predetermined        time ahead of a start time for a customer booking that        constitutes the future vehicle requirement by identifying Y        candidate vehicles that have potential to fulfil the booking,    -   scoring the Y candidate vehicles as to their suitability to        fulfil the booking,    -   choosing Z of the Y candidate vehicles based on their scores,        wherein the value of Z is lower than the value of Y,    -   calculating road journey times for the Z vehicles but not for        all Y vehicles,    -   using the calculated road journey time for at least one vehicle        to determine whether to allocate the vehicle, and    -   repeating the scoring and calculating steps until it is        determined to allocate the vehicle.

Another aspect of the invention provides apparatus comprising means for:

-   -   calculating road journey times for one or more of Z vehicles        each associated with a location that meets a predetermined        criterion with respect to a pickup location for a private hire        vehicle booking,    -   using the calculated road journey time for at least one vehicle        to determine whether to allocate the vehicle, and    -   repeating the calculating and using steps until it is determined        to allocate a vehicle to the booking.

Another aspect of the invention provides apparatus for allocating avehicle resource to a future vehicle requirement, the apparatuscomprising means for:

-   -   identifying Y candidate vehicles that have potential to fulfil        the future vehicle requirement,    -   scoring the Y candidate vehicles as to their suitability to        fulfil the booking,    -   choosing Z of the Y candidate vehicles based on their scores,        wherein the value of Z is lower than the value of Y,    -   calculating road journey times for the Z vehicles but not for        all Y vehicles,    -   repeating the scoring and calculating steps at least once and        then allocating a vehicle to fulfil the vehicle requirement.

Other aspects of the invention provide corresponding apparatus, computerprograms, and computer readable media for performing any one or more ofthe methods of the present disclosure. Some embodiments comprisecomputer programs comprising machine readable instructions that whenexecuted by computing apparatus causes it to perform any one or more ofthe described methods of allocating a vehicle resource to a futurevehicle requirement. Some embodiments comprise a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-readablecode (e.g., computer software instructions), which, when executed bycomputing apparatus, causes the computing apparatus to perform any oneor more of the described methods of allocating a vehicle resource to afuture vehicle requirement. Some embodiments comprise apparatus havingat least one processor and at least one memory having computer-readablecode stored thereon which when executed controls the at least oneprocessor to allocate a vehicle resource to a future vehicle requirementby performing the steps of one or more of the described methods.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example system for management of aplurality of vehicle resources according to various aspects of thepresent invention. As depicted in FIG. 1, example system 10 includes anumber of interconnected components, as will now be described. Thesystem 10 includes a vehicle resource allocation core system 12. Thiscomprises one or more server computers running system software thatensures smooth operation of the system 10. In accordance with someembodiments, the vehicle resource allocation core system 12 may compriseone or more vehicle resource allocation controller devices. One or moreof the represented components of the system 10 may be in communicationwith at least one other component using one or more communicationnetworks, such as the example communications network 13.

Key functions of the system 10 include the allocation of vehicleresources from a plurality of vehicle resources (e.g., first respondervehicles, public or private security vehicles, military vehicles,private hire vehicles) to at least one requested particular location(e.g., a booking for a passenger pickup and drop-off). As discussedfurther with respect to example system 100 (FIG. 5a and FIG. 5b ),additional functions may include vehicle and driver management, accountmanagement, and/or record keeping.

The requesting function may be provided, in some embodiments, using oneor more requester devices 20 a-c in communication with one or morerequest servers 21 (e.g., a web-based request server, an applicationserver, and/or a call centre terminal) in communication with the coresystem 12.

The allocation function is provided primarily by a vehicle resourceallocation module 15, with information from other parts of the system10.

In some embodiments, the priority location module 19 provides for one ormore of: determining information about hot spots and other prioritylocations (e.g., by accessing priority location database 16), defininghot spots dynamically and/or in response to user input (e.g., hot spotdefinition information received using a user interface), and providingone or more user interfaces for receiving, transmitting, and managinginformation about hot spots (e.g., attraction distances, periodicityinformation).

In some embodiments, vehicle resource location monitoring (e.g.,monitoring the locations of vehicles, associated vehicle resourcedevices, and/or drivers) is provided primarily by a vehicle resourcelocation monitoring module 17, with reference, as necessary, to thevehicle resource database 14, vehicle resource devices 22 a-c, and/orlocation service(s) 24, as well as other components of the system 100.

The system 10 may include one or more database functions, such asvehicle resource database 14, priority location database 16, andlocation database 18. The vehicle resource database 14 includesinformation about vehicle resources managed by the system 10. Thepriority location database 16 includes information about hot spotsidentified in the system 10, and may include information about extendedpriority zones associated with hot spots, attraction distances, and/orother types of parameters associated with defined hot spots. Thelocations database 18 may comprise maps and/or other types ofinformation describing locations to which vehicle resources may beallocated (e.g., street addresses, GPS coordinates, points of interestinformation, etc.). Some additional or alternative types of databasesthat may be suitable for some desired embodiments are described furtherwith respect to FIG. 5a and FIG. 5 b.

The system 10 may further comprise one or more types of locationservice(s) 24, such as GPS systems and/or other types of device locationservices that may be useful for determining locations of any ofrequester devices 20 a-c and/or of vehicle resource devices 22 a-c. Eachof vehicle resource devices 22 a-c may be associated with a respectivevehicle resource. A vehicle resource device may comprise a mobilecomputing device, smartphone, GPS component, and/or communicationsdevice configured to determine a location of a vehicle resource and/orto transmit information to the vehicle resource device about allocatedtasks and destinations (e.g., transmitting an assigned destination to avehicle's driver).

FIG. 2a is an example representation 200 of an example geographical areaincluding a plurality of vehicle resources and locations to be serviced,according to various aspects of the present invention. The examplerepresentation 200 of FIG. 2a depicts various types of informationrelated to vehicle resources of a vehicle resource allocation system andto vehicle requests being handled by the vehicle resource allocationsystem at a particular point in time (e.g., at the initiation of aprocess to allocate a vehicle to a particular vehicle request). FIG. 2b, discussed below, depicts an example of information related to thevehicle resources and vehicle requests at a later point in time (e.g.,later in a process to allocate a vehicle to the vehicle request). Putanother way, FIG. 2a depicts a first example state of mobile objectsbeing managed by a vehicle resource allocation system during anallocation process, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentinvention, and FIG. 2b depicts a second example state of those mobileobjects later during that allocation process.

The example representation 200 includes a start location 201 that isassociated with an example vehicle request. The vehicle request may be,for example, a request to send a vehicle (e.g., a utility repairvehicle, a police car, an ambulance or other medical transport vehicle,a taxi vehicle), of a fleet of potentially available vehicles, to thestart location 201. Other examples of vehicle requests are described inthis disclosure, and other types contemplated by aspects of the presentinvention may be readily understood by those skilled in the art in lightof this disclosure.

The start location 201, as discussed with respect to various examples inthis disclosure, may be any requested location for a vehicle or othermobile resource, including, without limitation, the location of ashipment or passenger for pick up, the requested location for a securityor police vehicle (e.g., to provide security at a large event at therequested location, or in response to a reported incident requiring apolice response at the requested location), or the requested locationfor an autonomous (unmanned) aerial or land-based reconnaissancevehicle). The start location 201 may be the only location associatedwith a vehicle request, or may be one of a plurality of requestedlocations associated with a vehicle request. For example, a request fora delivery may include both a pickup location for a shipment, and adrop-off location. In another example, a request for a vehicle patrolmay include a sequence of different patrol locations or waypoints that avehicle is to drive to on the requested patrol.

The respective current vehicle locations 221 a, 222 a, 223 a, and 224 aof a plurality of vehicle resources 221, 222, 223, and 224 are alsorepresented in the example representation 200. As discussed in thisdisclosure, the vehicle resources 221, 222, 223, and 224 may be a fleet(or a portion of a fleet) of vehicles that are potentially available tobe allocated to the start location 201 in response to the correspondingvehicle request.

As discussed with respect to various embodiments in this disclosure, oneor more vehicle resources may currently be fulfilling apreviously-allocated vehicle request (other than the request associatedwith start location 201). In the example representation, the vehicleresource 221 shown at current vehicle location 221 a is currentlyfulfilling a request that will take it to location 211, and the vehicleresource 222 shown at current vehicle location 222 a is currentlyfulfilling a request that will take it to location 212. The vehicleresource 223 shown at current vehicle location 223 a and the vehicleresource 224 shown at current vehicle location 224 a are not, accordingto the example, currently fulfilling any vehicle requests.

As discussed in more detail below with respect to the example allocationprocess 300 of FIG. 3, it may be useful, in allocating vehicle resourcesin accordance with some embodiments, to determine a distance a vehicleresource will have to travel from one location to another, such as fromits current location to a start location (e.g., start location 201),and/or from its current assigned destination location to a requestedstart location for a vehicle request that is yet to be allocated. Such adistance may be useful, for example, in calculating a respective scorefor a vehicle resource (e.g., a distance score, as discussed furtherbelow).

As also discussed in more detail below with respect to the exampleallocation process 300 of FIG. 3, it may be useful, in allocatingvehicle resources in accordance with some embodiments, to determine atime that it is expected to take a vehicle resource to travel from onelocation to another, such as from its current location to a requestedlocation (e.g., start location 201), and/or from its current assigneddestination location to a requested start location for a vehicle requestthat is yet to be allocated. This determined time is also referred to inthis disclosure as a ‘journey time’ for a given vehicle resource. Thejourney time may be useful, in some embodiments, in determining whetherthere is a need to allocate a specific vehicle to a vehicle request.

In the example representation 200, measure 231 a may represent a measureof distance (e.g., expressed in miles or kilometers), a distance score,and/or a journey time (e.g., expressed in minutes) from the currentvehicle location 221 a of vehicle resource 221 to its currentdestination location 211. Measure 241 represents a measure of distance,a distance score, and/or a journey time from the destination location211 to the start location 201. Accordingly, in allocating a vehicleresource to start location 201, an allocation process may use theinformation about the vehicle resource 221, including measure 231 aand/or measure 241, to determine whether the vehicle resource 221 is acandidate for being allocated to start location 201, to determinewhether the vehicle resource 221 is the best candidate vehicle toallocate to start location 201, and/or to determine when a specificvehicle needs to be allocated to the vehicle request for start location201.

Similarly, measure 232 a may represent a measure of distance, a distancescore, and/or a journey time from the current vehicle location 222 a ofvehicle resource 222 to its current destination location 212, andmeasure 242 may present a measure of distance, a distance score, and/ora journey time from the destination location 212 to the start location201.

Vehicle resources 223 and 224, according to the depicted example, do nothave current destination locations (i.e., they are currently free to beallocated to vehicle requests). Measure 233 a may present a measure ofdistance, a distance score, and/or a journey time from the currentvehicle location 223 a of vehicle resource 223 to the start location201. Similarly, measure 234 a may present a measure of distance, adistance score, and/or a journey time from the current vehicle location224 a of vehicle resource 224 to the start location 201.

In accordance with some embodiments of the present invention, one ormore functions of a process to allocate a vehicle resource to a futurevehicle requirement may be iterated (e.g., periodically and/or accordingto a schedule), for example, until it is determined that it is time toallocate a vehicle to the vehicle request. As discussed below withrespect to FIG. 3, an allocation process in accordance with someembodiments may perform functions of identifying candidate vehiclesand/or calculating scores for those vehicles, for a given vehiclerequest, more than once (e.g., every minute, every ten minutes). In thisway, requests may be fulfilled in an efficient manner.

Referring now to FIG. 2b , the example representation 200 has beenmodified to depict information about the state of an example system ofmobile objects at a time that is after the state of the system depictedin FIG. 2a . For example, the representation 200 in FIG. 2b mayrepresent information that was updated after an initial performance ofan allocation process to allocate a vehicle resource to start location201. Had a vehicle resource been allocated based on the state of thesystem in FIG. 2a , a different vehicle resource might have beenallocated to start location 201 than would be allocated based on thelater state of the system depicted in FIG. 2 b.

According to the example information depicted in FIG. 2b , vehicleresource 221 has completed its previous request (e.g., by traveling topreviously-assigned destination location 211) and is now free and atcurrent vehicle location 221 b. The measure 231 b now represents adistance, distance score, and/or journey time with respect to thecurrent vehicle location 221 b and the start location 201.

Also according to the example updated information represented in FIG. 2b, vehicle resource 222 is now at current vehicle location 222 b, whichis closer to its current destination location 212, as indicated by thereduced (relative to measure 232 a) measure 232 b.

Vehicle resource 223, now at current vehicle location 223 b, is nowfarther from the start location 201, as indicated by the reduced(relative to measure 233 a) measure 233 b.

Also according to the example updated information represented in FIG. 2b, vehicle resource 224 has, in the time between the time of the staterepresented in FIG. 2a and the time of the state represented in FIG. 2b, moved to current vehicle location 224 b, and has been assigned avehicle request to travel to destination location 214. Depending onvarious timing factors (e.g., the current time and the start time forthe vehicle request for start location 201 and/or the time between anyadditional iterations in the allocation analysis), the vehicle resource224 may still be considered for fulfilling the vehicle request to startlocation 201. Accordingly, the measure 234 b and measure 244 may beuseful in determining whether to allocate the vehicle resource 224 tothat vehicle request.

In some embodiments, a representation of a geographical area such asthat depicted in FIG. 2a and FIG. 2b may be represented in one or moreuser interfaces (e.g., a displayed map for visualizing locations ofvehicles, locations associated with vehicle requests, and/or locationsof requesters) for using and/or administering a vehicle resourceallocation system.

As discussed in this disclosure, various embodiments of the presentinvention provide for allocating vehicle resources for future vehiclerequirements. FIG. 3 depicts an example allocation process 300 that maybe performed, for example, by the vehicle resource allocation module 15and/or by the job allocation module 105 (discussed below with respect toan example private hire booking service).

Referring to FIG. 3, the operation starts at step 301.

At step 302, a vehicle request entered into a vehicle resourceallocation system. One example of entering a vehicle request isdescribed, in the example context of a private hire booking service,with respect to step 602 of FIG. 6. The vehicle request (e.g., a requestfor a service vehicle, a request for an autonomous (unmanned) aerial orland-based drone vehicle) constitutes a vehicle requirement. In oneembodiment, vehicles in a fleet of vehicles (e.g., police vehicles,military vehicles, freighter ships, taxi vehicles) constitute vehicleresources that can be allocated to a vehicle requirement constituted bya vehicle request (e.g., a request by a user of a requester device, arequest by an administrator of a vehicle resource allocation system).

At step 303, the example process comprises calculating a value of time Xfor the vehicle request. The value of X indicates a time before a starttime, associated with the vehicle request, at which to start theallocation process. The value of X may be determined based on one ormore factors, as discussed below.

Advantageously, the value of X may depend, in some embodiments, on astart location associated with the vehicle request (e.g., a pickuplocation for a booking).

The value of X may depend, in one or more embodiments, on a priorityassociated with the vehicle request. In one embodiment, the priority maybe based on a status or priority associated with a requester. In anotherexample embodiment, the priority may be based on whether a requestedbooking is an account booking (relatively high priority) or a cashbooking (relatively low priority). In another example embodiment, thevalue of X may depend on the identity of an account under which thevehicle request was made, with relatively high value accounts having ahigher priority than relatively low value accounts.

According to some embodiments, the value of X may depend on a zone inwhich the start location (e.g., start location 201 of FIG. 2a ) ispresent. A relatively low value of X may be used, for example, for zonesin which a high concentration of fleet vehicles usually is present, anintermediate value of X may be used for zones in which an intermediateconcentration of fleet vehicles usually is present, and a high value ofX may be used for zones in which a low concentration of fleet vehiclesusually is present.

By way of example, in London, a value of X=15 is considered to besuitable for pickup locations for bookings in central zones, forinstance zones having postcodes starting with SE1, SE11, SE17, SW1, SW4,SW8, WC1, WC2, EC1, EC2, EC4, N1, W1, E1, E2 etc. A value of X=20 isconsidered to be suitable for intermediate zones, for instance zoneshaving postcodes starting with SW6, SE8, N6 etc. A value of X=30 isconsidered to be suitable for pickup locations in outer zones, forinstance zones having postcodes starting with SE6, SW20, TW10, HA9 etc.A value of X=60 is considered to be suitable for pickup locations inzones outside but surrounding London, for instance zones havingpostcodes starting with RH3, SG13, KT15. The value of X may be as highas 300 for pickup locations that are remote from London.

The value of X may vary for different zones depending on the priority ofthe booking. For instance, in London a value of X=25 is considered to besuitable for low priority (cash) bookings with pickup locations in zoneshaving postcodes starting with SE21, SE26, Sw16 and SW13 but a value ofX=30 is considered to be suitable for high priority (account) bookingsin the same zones.

Alternatively, or in addition, the value of X could be fixed, or couldbe dynamically set by an operator and/or controller of an allocationsystem (e.g., system 10, system 100). A fixed or set value may beindependent, in some embodiments, of the start location and/or anassociated priority. In one example, a fixed or set value of X may bebetween 10 and 30 minutes and for instance the value of X may be 20. Inthis case, the allocation process starts 20 minutes before the scheduledstart time (e.g., expected arrival of a transport vehicle, a pickuptime).

A relatively low value of X means that a process does not start toallocate a specific vehicle to a vehicle request until relatively soonbefore the vehicle request start time. This equates to a lower amount ofprocessing that is required to allocate a vehicle if there are multiplevehicles that could fulfil a vehicle request whilst allowing the bestvehicle to fulfil the request.

Because, in some embodiments, a low value of X is applied in zones thattypically have a high concentration of vehicles, this providesadvantages of commencing allocation at a time when a number of vehiclesmay be able to satisfy the vehicle request, and so allows more optionsfor allocating the best vehicle for the request.

A relatively high value of X means that a process starts to allocate aspecific vehicle to a vehicle request a relatively long time before thevehicle request start time. This provides a greater possibility toidentify a vehicle to fulfil the request without arriving late for therequest, and is particularly useful where the vehicle may have asignificant distance to travel to the requested location (e.g., as aresult of the relatively low vehicle density).

Because, in some embodiments, a relatively high value of X is applied inzones that typically have a low density/concentration of vehicles, thisprovides advantages of commencing vehicle allocation at a time when anumber of vehicles may be able to satisfy the request and so allows moreoptions for allocating the best vehicle for the request. This effect isadvantageous also for high value customers, for which a higher prioritymay be accorded.

At step 304, the process waits until X minutes before the start time forthe vehicle request. This results in the allocation process beingcommenced an appropriate time before the start time (e.g., on thecorrect date).

At step 305, the example allocation process identifies the Y vehiclesthat are nearest to the start location for the vehicle request (e.g., acustomer pickup location). The value of Y may be any number as desiredfor a particular implementation. In one example, Y may be between 10 and100, and may for instance be 40.

In some embodiments, the vehicles are determined to be nearest if theyhave shortest crow fly distance between their current location (e.g.,their last reported location, where vehicle locations may be reportedperiodically, such as every 30 seconds) and the location of therequested start location. The distance may be calculated, for example,as the straight line distance between the latitude and longitudecoordinates of the location of the vehicle and the start locationcorresponding to the vehicle request.

In some embodiments, the process may provide for selecting, in step 305all vehicles with an active status, e.g., ‘available’, ‘going home’,‘POB’, ‘drop in 5’ or ‘drop in 10.’ Vehicles that have a statusindicating an inactive status, e.g., ‘off shift’, ‘allocated’ (to arequest), ‘disabled,’ ‘unavailable,’ or ‘on break’ (the driver is on abreak) are not considered for selection. The result is a pool ofcandidate vehicles for the vehicle request. The number of candidatevehicles typically is a much smaller number than the number of vehiclesin the fleet that have one of the relevant statuses.

The use of crow fly distances in step 305 results, in accordance withsome embodiments, in an appropriate number of vehicles being selectedfor possible allocation to the job but without requiring the processingneeded to calculate road routes and road distances for each of thevehicles. The calculation of crow fly distances is computationallynon-intensive compared to road distance formulation.

At step 306, a score is calculated for the vehicle/request combinationfor each of the pool of candidate vehicles, i.e. the vehicles that wereidentified in step 305. A score may be calculated, in some embodiments,as described with reference to example method 400 of FIG. 4. The resultis a numerical value that is an indication of the suitability of thevehicle for the request. Put another way, the result is a metric of thesuitability of the vehicle for the request.

At step 307, the process may comprise calculating a number Z of vehiclesfor which to calculate journey times. This may be performed in anysuitable way.

In some embodiments, an allocation module calculates the value of Z tobe the number of vehicles whose score calculated at step 306 falls belowa threshold value (if a low score is better) or exceeds a thresholdvalue (if a higher score is better). The threshold may be an absoluteamount, for instance 100. Alternatively, the threshold may be related tothe score of the best scoring vehicle. Where a low score is better, thethreshold may be calculated as a multiple of the score of the bestscoring vehicle and where a high score is better the threshold may becalculated as a fraction of the score of the best scoring vehicle. Forinstance, if the multiple is 3 and the best scoring vehicle has a scoreof 20, the threshold is set at 60. Alternatively, the threshold may beset at a predetermined distance from the best scoring vehicle. Forinstance, if the predetermined distance is 40 and the best scoringvehicle has a score of 20, the threshold is set at 60. The value of Z iscapped at a maximum proportion (for instance 25%) of the value of Y.

In some other embodiments, step 307 involves looking up a value of asetting that is stored in the system. The value of the setting may beset manually or automatically, and may be any value suitable for adesired implementation. In one example, the value may be 1.Advantageously, the setting may be between 3 and 10.

In still further embodiments, the value of Z may be set as apredetermined proportion of the value of Y. For instance, the value of Zmay be set at 0.1 times, 0.2 times or 0.3 times the value of Y.

However it is calculated, the value of Z is lower than the value of Y.As such, road distance calculation is not performed for all of the Yvehicles that were determined to be closest to the start location atstep 305.

At step 308, a journey time for each of the Z best scoring vehicles iscalculated. The Z best scoring vehicles are the vehicles whose scoresare better than the other vehicles that were scored at step 306. Thejourney time for a vehicle is the journey time from an associatedvehicle location (e.g., its current location) to the start locationassociated with the request. For example, the journey time for theexample vehicle resource 223 in FIG. 2a is the journey time from thevehicle location 223 a to the start location 201.

The journey time for each of the Z best scoring vehicles may becalculated at step 308 by an allocation module (e.g., vehicle resourceallocation module 15, job allocation module 105) or it may alternativelybe calculated by vehicle resource allocation core system 12 and/or thecore system 101. The journey time is calculated by predicting journeytimes for a small number of the most direct routes between the vehiclelocation and the start location (e.g., a police destination, a pickupaddress), and choosing the shortest journey time. If one route can bedetermined to be the best route, then the journey time for that route istaken as the journey time between the vehicle location and the startlocation. Alternatively, the journey with the smallest time cost may beidentified and used to determine the journey time.

In some embodiments, the vehicle location association with a vehicle,for purposes of determining a journey time, may be an expected finaldestination for a request currently being (or to be) fulfilled by thevehicle, rather than the vehicle's current location. For example, forvehicles currently fulfilling a previously-allocated booking (e.g., thathave the status ‘drop in 5’ ‘drop in 10’ or ‘POB’), the journey time iscalculated from the destination or final location of the request beingfulfilled, rather than the vehicle's current location.

According to some embodiments, the prediction of journey times may useactual or estimated averages of transit times of segments of the journey(e.g., stored in the location database 18 and/or map and locationdatabase 109) added together to produce a journey time for the requiredjourney. In the simplest embodiments, the segment transit times areestimated from known speed limits (maximum permitted speeds) andjunction counts (numbers of traffic lights, give way junctions etc.) inthe segments. In other embodiments, historical averages may be stored inone or more databases (e.g., location database 18, the map and locationdatabase 109, or historical database 132) and are used in the journeytime calculation.

In the most sophisticated embodiments, historical averages for differenttimes of day and different types of day (weekday versus Saturday versusSunday) are accessed from data storage or otherwise received and used inthe journey time calculation. The more sophisticated embodimentstypically require more data to be collected, processed and stored (e.g.,in the location database 18, in the map and location database 109).However, they provide more accurate journey time calculations, inparticular by taking into account issues such as weekday rush hourtraffic conditions and generally taking into account local trafficvolume and flow patterns. However it is performed, the calculation of ajourney time is a relatively computing resource intensive step in partbecause it requires identification of one or more best routes betweentwo locations.

In some embodiments, calculating a journey time at step 308 may comprisecalculating a late score for each of the Z best vehicles. Calculating alate score may comprise determining how late a vehicle would be if itwere allocated to the vehicle resource at the current time, andassigning a corresponding late score. In some embodiments, calculating alate score takes into account the calculated journey time and the timeremaining before the start time of the request. This may or may not takeinto account an allocation buffer, which is discussed below. In one ormore embodiments, if any of the vehicles scores a non-zero late score,this is taken into account in the overall score for the vehicles and maychange which vehicle is the best scoring vehicle for the request. Oneexample process for determining a late score is described with referenceto FIG. 4.

In one or more embodiments, at step 309, an allocation buffer value(also referred to as a ‘delay time’) is calculated for the best scoringvehicle. The allocation buffer provides a margin or cushion for thevehicle to arrive at the start location at the start time. The value ofthe allocation buffer may be calculated in any suitable way.

The allocation buffer value calculated in step 309 may for instance becalculated using a predetermined margin or a predetermined multiplier. Alarger allocation buffer value may be calculated for higher priorityvehicle requests, for instance requests for emergency or policeservices, or for bookings originating from high value customers.

The allocation buffer value may be calculated, in one example, as thecalculated journey time multiplied by a predetermined factor, which mayhave a value between 0.2 and 0.5 and most advantageously is between 0.3and 0.4. Alternatively, the allocation buffer may be independent of thetime remaining to the start time or the calculated journey time. It maybe a fixed value, for example with a value between 1 and 3 minutes. Thevalue may instead be calculated as the sum of a number of values whichare set on a zone basis, e.g. each zone is allocated a value (which mayvary according to the time of day and the day of the week) and theallocation buffer is the sum of the values for the zones through whichthe vehicle would need to travel to reach the start location.

The allocation buffer value may, in some embodiments, additionallyinclude an element that derives from the status of the vehicle. Forinstance, an additional amount may be added for vehicles currentlyfulfilling another request (e.g., with the status ‘drop in 5’ (forinstance an additional 5 minutes), ‘drop in 10’ (10 minutes) and ‘POB’(estimated time remaining until the vehicle reaches its drop-offlocation)).

According to some embodiments, at step 310, the process provides forassessing the journey time for the best scoring vehicle, in particularto assess whether the vehicle needs to start the journey to the startlocation in order to arrive there at the start time. The assessmentinvolves, in one embodiment, the following calculation:Optimum time to leaving=requested start time−(journey time+allocationbuffer)

Where:

optimum time to leaving is the time of day that would be optimum for thevehicle to start the journey to the start location,

requested start time is the start time for the vehicle request (e.g., apickup time for a booking),

journey time is the journey time value calculated for the best scoringvehicle at step 308, and

allocation buffer is the allocation buffer value calculated for the bestscoring vehicle at step 309.

The difference in time between the current time and the optimum time forleaving is then calculated and the result is compared to a threshold.The result of the comparison of the value to the threshold is used inthe next step to determine whether it is time to allocate the vehicle tothe booking.

The use of an allocation buffer value in the calculation increases thechances that, on average, vehicles will arrive to fulfil requests ontime whilst minimising the chances that vehicles will arrive too earlyand thus be a non-utilized resource whilst waiting for the start time.

At step 311, it is determined whether the current time is the time toallocate a vehicle to the vehicle request. The threshold mentioned abovein relation to step 310 may for instance be 1 (1 minute) or zero. If itis calculated at step 311 that the difference in time between thecurrent time and the optimum time for leaving is less than thethreshold, then a positive determination is made. This indicates thatthe vehicle needs to start now (or within the next minute) their journeyto the start location in order to arrive in time (having regard to theallocation buffer value).

On detecting at step 311 that it is time to allocate a vehicle to therequest, the best scoring vehicle is allocated to the request at step312 before the operation ends at step 313.

If it is detected at 311 that it is not time to allocate the vehicle,the operation continues to step 314. Here, it is determined whetherthere is a clear best scoring vehicle and if so whether that vehicle ismoving away from the start location. A ‘clear best scoring vehicle’ isone that has a score that is significantly better than (e.g., athreshold amount away from or multiple/fraction of) the score of thenext best scoring vehicle. A determination as to whether it is movingaway is made by comparing the road distance from the vehicle to thestart location to a previously calculated road distance, or by comparingthe calculated journey time to the last calculated journey time. Onmaking a determination that the best scoring vehicle is moving away fromthe start location, the operation proceeds to allocate the best scoringvehicle to the request at step 312.

In one or more embodiments, step 310 may be dependent on otherconditions being present, for instance relating to the time remaining tothe start time of the vehicle request and the journey time to the startlocation.

By making the assessment at step 310 in respect of the best scoringvehicle, it is the vehicle that is best suited to the vehicle requestthat is determined to be required to be allocated to the request, evenif that vehicle is not the vehicle that is closest to the requestedstart location or has the shortest journey to the start location. Thisallows the optimisation of the allocation of fleet vehicles to vehiclerequests, and it allows it to be achieved in an intelligent way. Forexample, the vehicle resource 224 may be the best scoring vehicle forthe example request to start location 201 described with respect to FIG.2b , even if vehicle resource 224 currently has a destination location,and the vehicle resource 221 currently has the shortest journey to thestart location. Additionally, it allows, with respect to someembodiments, modification of the way in which vehicles are selected forfulfilling vehicle requests through adjustment only of a cost scoringprocess (e.g., the example scoring process 400 of FIG. 4), and does notrequire adjustment of the allocation process.

In one or more embodiments, after step 314, at step 315 the processcomprises waiting until X−A minutes before the start time. The value ofA may be initialised, for example, at 1 when the operation began at step301, so on first performance of step 315 the operation waits until X−1minutes before the start time of the booking. Once this time has beenreached, the value of A is incremented at step 316 and the operationreturns to step 305, where the nearest Y vehicles to the start locationare identified. An effect of steps 315 and 316, and the return to step305, is that nearest vehicles are identified and scored once everyminute (or after another desired or predetermined time increment), untila vehicle is allocated.

On subsequent execution of step 305, vehicles that no longer have one ofthe relevant statuses (e.g., ‘POB’, ‘available’, ‘drop in 5’ or ‘drop in10’) may not be identified as candidate vehicles and may not be scoredat step 306.

On subsequent performance of step 306 in relation to a given request,many of the same vehicles may be scored but they may score differentlythan the last occasion on which they were scored. For example, the samevehicle resources depicted FIGS. 2a and 2b may score differently as ofthe later time represented in FIG. 2b than when they were scored as ofthe time represented in FIG. 2a . Vehicles will score worse (with ahigher score) in some instances, for instance if they have moved awayfrom the start location by a significant distance (e.g., as vehicleresource 223 moved away from start location 201 as depicted in FIG. 2aand FIG. 2b ). Vehicles will score better (with a lower score) in someinstances, for instance if the status of the vehicle has changed from apreviously-allocated status (e.g., ‘drop in 5’) to a status indicatingcurrent availability (e.g., ‘available’). In one example, the status ofvehicle resource 221 changed between the times represented in FIG. 2aand FIG. 2b from a previously-allocated status (assigned to destinationlocation 211) to being available for the example request to startlocation 201. Also, wait times necessarily will be longer and so thewait time score (which is negative) may reduce the total score for manyvehicles. As such, on subsequent performance of step 307, differentvehicles may be in the Z best vehicles and a different vehicle may bethe best scoring vehicle. In that case, it is a different vehicle forwhich the journey time to the start location needs to be calculated sothat it can be determined at step 311 if it is time to allocate thevehicle to the request.

Whether or not different vehicles form the pool of Z best vehicles areidentified on subsequent execution of step 307, or Z has a differentvalue, the calculation of the journey times is made again for the Zvehicles at step 308. If the journey time for the best scoring vehiclehas already been calculated for the same or a very similar location ofany of the Z best scoring vehicles (which occurs when the vehicle isstationary or has not moved significantly), step 307 may, in someembodiments, use the previously calculated journey time instead ofcalculating the journey time again. In one embodiment, a journey timefor a vehicle may be taken from a journey time calculated for adifferent vehicle either currently or very recently if there is asubstantial match in vehicle locations.

Whether or not a different vehicle is the best scoring vehicle onsubsequent execution of step 306, at step 311 it is determined whetherit is time to allocate the vehicle to the request, based on the journeytime to the start location and the time remaining to the start time forthe request, etc. Since step 311 necessarily is performed at a latertime than previous performance of the step (1 minute later in thisexample), it may on the latest performance of step 311 be determinedthat it is time to allocate the vehicle even if the best scoring vehiclehas not moved, in particular when time has elapsed such that the vehicleneeds to start its journey to arrive at the start location on time. Onceit is determined that it is time to allocate the vehicle, the bestscoring vehicle is allocated to the booking at step 312. This is thecase regardless of whether it is predicted that the vehicle could arriveat the start location on or before the start time.

The vehicle that is allocated to the booking at step 312 will, by virtueof the scoring operation (at 306), be the vehicle that is best suited tothe request. It may be that the circumstances are such that the vehiclewill be allocated at a time when it could arrive late at the startlocation. This may occur for instance if the best vehicle changed statusfrom an unavailable status (e.g., ‘on break’ or ‘off shift’) to anavailable status (e.g., ‘available’) at a late stage in the allocationprocess or if there is a severe shortage of vehicles near the startlocation for the request. However, the inclusion of the allocationbuffer means that the vehicle may not arrive late.

In accordance with some embodiments, the configuration of a vehicleresource allocation module to allocate a vehicle to a vehicle request atthe last minute (even though the request may be a future vehicle requestthat was entered much earlier), or ‘just in time’, increases theflexibility of allocation of vehicle resources of a fleet. It alsocontributes to reducing the overall mileage that is traveled by thevehicles of the fleet in order to satisfy the requests that are receivedby a vehicle resource allocation system (e.g., system 10, vehicleresource allocation core system 12, system 100). In the absence of thedynamic and flexible allocation provided by the technical improvementsto managing a dynamic system of vehicle resources and other mobileobjects, as described above and in this disclosure, vehicles would beallocated to requests less optimally, resulting in an increased overalldistance traveled of the vehicles of the fleet. Reduced distancetraveled equates to lower fuel consumption leading to lower carbonemissions, lower vehicle wear and tear, lower chance of accidents, lowerdriver fatigue, and generally lower costs.

The use of crow fly (direct) distance calculation, in accordance withsome embodiments, in selecting candidate vehicles whilst usingcalculated journey times in determining the best vehicle from the poolof candidate vehicles minimises system resource use whilst providingeffective allocation because it requires relatively little journey timecalculation.

It will be appreciated from the above that steps 305 to 311 may berepeated until a vehicle is allocated to the request. The number oftimes that the steps are repeated depends, for example, on the initialvalue of X, which dictates how long before the start time of the bookingthe allocation process 300 of FIG. 3 begins, and the number of minutesbefore the start time that the vehicle is allocated to the request.

For requests in areas where there are relatively large numbers ofvehicles and journey times to potential start locations may be short(e.g., for bookings in central city locations), requests may beallocated only a small number of minutes, for instance 2, 3 or 4minutes, before start times. For requests in other locations, wherethere may be relatively few vehicles and a low vehicle density, requestsmay be allocated significantly longer before the start time for therequest, for instance 12, 15 or 18 minutes before the start time. Forrequests with start locations where there are no vehicles, so a vehicleneeds to travel a long distance, requests may be allocated many minutes,potentially a number of hours, before the start time.

In some embodiments, by selecting corresponding values of X fordifferent zones, the allocation process 300 of FIG. 3 will typically runfor approximately the same period of time across the fleet at any giventime. During busy periods or during periods when there is a relativelyhigh number of active vehicles, requests may be allocated closer to thestart times of requests and so the allocation process may run forlonger.

For vehicle fleets with relatively low vehicle densities, having regardto the covered geographical area, a higher value of X may be appropriatein some implementations. Advantageously, the value of X, which indicatesthe number of minutes prior to the start time that the allocationprocess begins, may be set by an administrator of the system. The valueof X may be settable by an administrator on a per zone basis. A globalsetting may also be applied, by which the value of X is altered for allzones by a given amount or factor.

In some embodiments, the scores of vehicles in pre-allocation processesfor other requests are taken into account when allocating a vehicle to arequest. In particular, before allocating the best scoring vehicle to arequest, the process (e.g., as executed by an allocation module)determines how the vehicle ranks in other requests for which vehiclesare being scored but which have not yet had a vehicle allocated to them.If a vehicle is the best scoring vehicle against a first request but isthe best scoring vehicle against a second request by a larger margin,the vehicle may be allocated to the second request even if at thecurrent time the vehicle would be allocated to the first request so asto arrive at the start location on time to fulfil the request. This maybe achieved by allocating the vehicle to the second request or byapplying a penalty score for the vehicle against the first request suchthat it ceases to be the best scoring vehicle against that firstrequest.

An example method 400 of scoring a vehicle against a vehicle request,such as requested booking of a private hire vehicle, will now bedescribed with reference to FIG. 4. The scoring process 400 of FIG. 4may be performed, for example, by the vehicle resource allocation module15 and/or the job allocation module 105.

Although the example method 400 of FIG. 4 describes a plurality ofvarious types of sub scores and a total or composite score, it iscontemplated that scoring a vehicle with respect to a vehicle requestmay comprise determining a score based on one or more of the describedtypes of sub scores, and in any combination, as seemed suitable for adesired implementation of an allocation process. For example, a scoringprocess for use in allocating a vehicle for a future vehicle requirement(as described with respect to FIG. 3) may comprise calculating one ormore of: a distance score, a service capability score, and/or a latescore. Accordingly, while various example types of sub scores andcorresponding composite scores are discussed with respect to FIG. 4(some of which are particularly applicable to the context of privatehire bookings and/or vehicles having drivers), it will be understoodthat sub scores and total scores may be calculated for other types ofvehicle resources (manned and/or autonomous or unmanned) and other typesof vehicle requests.

The operation starts at step 401. In brief, different scores arecalculated at steps 402 to 408, and at step 409 the scores are summedtogether. Clearly, it will be appreciated that the example scores may becalculated in any order, that not all of the scores described mustnecessarily be calculated, and that the scores may be calculated whollyor partly in parallel.

At step 402, a distance score is calculated. The distance score allowsthe distance between a vehicle and the start location of a vehiclerequest (e.g., the pickup location of a booking) to be taken intoaccount when scoring the vehicle against the request. The distance scoreis calculated as the distance between the current position of thevehicle and the start location (e.g., delivery address, trafficenforcement location, customer pickup address). The distance has theunit of miles, but it may alternatively be kilometers, or any desiredmeasure of distance. The distance is calculated as the distance thatwill need to be traveled by the vehicle to reach the start location,taking into account road layout, one way streets, etc. This is known asthe road distance. The shortest route from the vehicle to the startlocation is used for the distance location, even if this is not thequickest route. The route and the road distance thereof are calculated,for example, using information from the vehicle resource database 14,the location database 18, and/or the historical database 132.Preferably, it is the last recorded position of the vehicle that is usedin the distance score calculation.

An administrator or other operator of an allocation system (e.g., system10, vehicle resource allocation core system 12, core system 101, system100) may apply a setting such that the distance score is always zero, inwhich case the distance between the vehicle and the start location isnot taken into account in the score calculation.

At step 403, a service compatibility score is calculated. The servicecompatibility score results in the taking into account of the car typepreference or other vehicle resource type preference that was specifiedin a request, against the type of the vehicle that is being scored. Ifthe type of vehicle that is being costed is the same type as that isspecified in the request, or is consistent with that type, then theservice compatibility score is zero. The service compatibility scoretakes a positive value if there is incompatibility between the servicetype of the request and the type of vehicle that is being scored. In thecase of the request specifying a VIP or large vehicle, and the vehiclebeing scored being a standard vehicle, a penalty of 500, for example,may be provided as the service compatibility score. A penalty helps toensure that a specific type (e.g., VIP vehicle) will be provided tofulfil a request if one is available, but if not then a different typeof vehicle (e.g., a standard car) can be provided.

In the case of a booking, in another example, specifying a standard fourpassenger vehicle, a penalty score of 50 points may be provided for avehicle that is a seven-seater vehicle. This helps in ensuring that thebooking is serviced with a suitable car, but also contributes toavoiding the removal of a large capacity vehicle from the pool ofavailable vehicles unnecessarily.

In another example, in the case of a booking being for a standard carand the vehicle type being a VIP car, a penalty score of 100 may beprovided. Similarly to the situation described in relation to the largercapacity vehicle, this helps to ensure that the booking is satisfiedwhilst not removing VIP vehicles from the available fleet unnecessarily.

At step 404, an empty time score is calculated. The empty time scoreallows the utilisation of the vehicle (and/or a corresponding driver) tobe taken into account in the scoring of the vehicle in relation to thevehicle request.

The empty time score is calculated, in one example, as the product of −1and the time (in minutes or other desired unit of time measure) sincethe last request allocated to the vehicle (e.g., or car/drivercombination) was completed and a cost per empty minute. The cost perempty minute is in effect a weighting factor. The weighting factor maybe set by an administrator of a vehicle resource allocation system. Fora vehicle that is currently fulfilling a request (e.g., a taxi in thestate ‘POB’) the empty time score preferably is zero.

The inclusion of an empty time score in the operation of method 400helps to provide load balancing of the vehicles, and (where applicable)load balancing of the drivers. Vehicle load balancing helps to even outwear and tear on different vehicles in the fleet on a unit time basis.Load balancing of drivers is useful because it helps to prevent thelikelihood of drivers performing too many consecutive jobs withinsufficient breaks in between the jobs, and it also helps to reduce thelikelihood that drivers will wait for long periods between jobs. Loadbalancing of drivers, through use of the empty time score in the costingoperation, helps to prevent driver fatigue and thus improves safety.

At step 405, a going home score is calculated (e.g., where a drive isassociated with a vehicle resource). In one example, if the status of adriver is ‘going home’, then a score is calculated. If the driver hassome other state, then the going home score is zero.

If the driver's status is ‘going home’, the going home score iscalculated as the product of −1 and the number of saved miles and adistance criteria. The saved miles component of the score provides ameasure of how much closer to their home the driver would be if theyfulfilled this request. The saved miles component is calculated as thecurrent distance to home (which is the road distance from the currentlocation of the vehicle to the driver's home address) minus the distancebetween the start location or other subsequent requested location for arequest (e.g., a drop-off address) and home (which is the road distancefrom the last location of the request to the driver's home address). Thedistance criteria provides a weighting, and may be set by anadministrator of the system.

The effect of the inclusion of the going home score is to increase thelikelihood that a job will be allocated to a driver who is on the way totheir home (for instance for a lunch break or having finished theirshift) if the job would take the driver to a location that is nearer totheir home. The magnitude of the score depends on the distance thatwould be saved, so a score is obtained if the last requested location isrelatively closer to the driver's home address.

At step 406, a drop 5/10 score (also referred to as a ‘time toavailability’ score) is calculated. For vehicles or drivers that have anassociated status indicating the vehicle is currently fulfilling avehicle request but will be available relatively soon for allocation toa new request (e.g., ‘drop in 5’ or a ‘drop in 10’ status), the drop5/10 score has a positive value. For vehicles or drivers that do nothave such a status, that is for vehicles that are not currentlyfulfilling a request, the time to availability score is zero. The statusof the vehicle may be set by a driver, in accordance with someembodiments, through their driver's device 110 or vehicle resourcedevice 22 a. In particular, when the driver's device 110 calculates, forexample, that there are fewer than 10 minutes remaining in the journeyto a drop-off address, the driver's device 110 provides an option to theuser to adopt the ‘drop in 10’ status. If the driver selects this optionon the driver's device 110 (when the vehicle is stationary), the ‘dropin 10’ status is entered. Similarly, when the driver's device 110detects that there are fewer than five minutes remaining in the journeyto the drop-off location, the driver's device 110 provides an option toallow the driver to select entering the ‘drop in 5’ status.

If the driver of the vehicle has a ‘drop in 5’ status, a score of 20points is calculated, for example. If the driver has the ‘drop in 10’status, a score of 30 points is calculated, for example. Other scorevalues may be deemed appropriate for other types of statuses andexpected times to availability.

The calculation of a time to availability score allows vehicles thathave a request in progress (e.g., have a POB status) to be consideredfor allocation to another request. However, a penalty is applied to themwith the result that they are less favoured than vehicles that arecurrently empty. This provides protection against the vehicle arrivinglate for the request if, for example, there are unexpected delays in theprevious journey.

At step 407, if the status of the vehicle indicates that the vehicle iscurrently fulfilling a booking or other type of vehicle request (e.g.,the vehicle has an associated status of ‘POB’, ‘drop in 5’ or ‘drop in10’), a risk score is calculated. In brief, the inclusion of the riskscore allows vehicles that are not currently available to be allocatedto a request to be considered for a new vehicle request whilst takinginto account the risk that they will not be able to fulfil the newvehicle request.

In some embodiments, the risk score may be calculated according to:Risk Score=POB penalty+POB risk penalty*riskwhererisk=home risk+(1−home risk)*shift end riskwhere

-   -   home risk=base home risk/100;    -   base home risk=        -   0, if distance to home>6;        -   50, if 3<distance to home<6;        -   1000, if distance to home<3;    -   shift end risk=base shift end risk/100;        and where:        Base shift end risk=current time−driver shift start time

Thus, the value of base shift end risk is a measure of the period oftime elapsed since the driver started the current shift. The valueincreases, giving rise to a higher value of the risk score, as the shiftlength increases.

The value of the base home risk parameter varies according to thedistance to the driver's home from the final location of the requestcurrently being fulfilled (e.g., a drop-off location). It is banded suchthat it may take one of only a predetermined number of values, in thiscase 3. If the distance to the driver's home is low, the value of thebase home risk is relatively high, and vice versa.

In some embodiments, the value of the shift end risk parameter may bederived from a look up table in which bands are stored. The look uptable may for instance take the following form:

Duration Base shift end risk 0-2 20 2-3 25 3-4 30 4-5 40 5-6 50 6-7 60 7-10 80 >10 90

According to this non-limiting example look up table, a shift length of2.6 hours provides a base shift end risk value of 25, and a shift lengthof 4.6 hours provides a base shift end risk value of 40.

In general terms, the risk score is a function of the distance betweenthe final location of the request currently being fulfilled and the homeaddress of the driver of the vehicle. It is a function also of the timesince the driver of the vehicle started their shift. The risk score is ameasure of the likelihood that the driver will end their shift and gohome after they have completed fulfilling their current request.

At step 408, a late score is calculated. In brief, the inclusion of thelate score introduces a penalty for vehicles that it is calculated wouldbe likely to arrive late at the start location.

The late time score is calculated according to the following:Late Time Score=late time*late time weighting factor

Where the value of the late time parameter is the number of minutesafter the start time for the vehicle request that the vehicle ispredicted to arrive at the pickup location and the late time weightingfactor is a configurable parameter that weights the contribution of thelate time to the overall score for the vehicle/request combination.

In general terms, the late time score is a function of how late it isexpected that a vehicle would be if it were allocated to a request atthe current time.

As discussed in more detail with respect to the example process 300 ofFIG. 3, the late score may not be calculated for every vehicle. Instead,in accordance with some embodiments, the late score may only becalculated for a relatively small number of vehicles.

At step 409, the scores calculated in steps 402 to 408 are summed, toprovide a total score for the vehicle/request combination (ordriver/vehicle/request combination, as desired). This score may be used,as described with respect to various embodiments in this disclosure, inone or more allocation processes (e.g., the method 300 shown in FIG. 3).

As discussed above, various types of vehicle resource allocation systemsmay provide for allocating different types of vehicles (e.g., police andsecurity vehicle resources, remotely-operated aircraft) dynamically atparticular times based on various timing factors, including journeytimes. FIGS. 5a, 5b , and 6 and the accompanying text below describesome additional details of managing vehicle resources, using an exampleand non-limiting context of a private hire vehicle service. According tosome embodiments, as discussed further below with respect to FIG. 5a ,FIG. 5b , and FIG. 6, vehicles in a fleet of private hire vehicles mayconstitute vehicle resources that can be allocated to a vehiclerequirement constituted by a requested booking (e.g., having anassociated customer pickup location and an associated drop-offlocation).

FIG. 5a is a schematic diagram of a system for management of a privatehire vehicle service according to various aspects of the presentinvention.

The system 100 includes a number of interconnected components, as willnow be described. The system 100 includes at its centre a core system101. This comprises one or more server computers running system softwarethat ensures smooth operation of the system 100.

Key functions of the system 100 are bookings, allocation of a privatehire vehicle to a booking, vehicle and driver management, accountmanagement and record keeping.

The booking function is provided primarily by a web booking server 102,an application booking server 103 and call centre terminals 104A and104B, all of which are coupled to the core system 101.

The allocation function is provided primarily by a job allocation module105, with information from other parts of the system 100.

The system includes database functions. In particular, an operationaldatabase 130 stores records that relate to general operation of thesystem 100. A driver network database 131 stores records that relate todrivers and vehicles that are managed by the system 100. Lastly, ahistorical database 132 stores records that have been archived from theoperational database 130. Archiving of records from the operationaldatabase 130 to the historical database 132 occurs periodically and onlyrecords that are no longer needed for general operational use arearchived.

The vehicle and driver management function is provided primarily by adriver location monitoring module 106 and a driver's devices server 107,with reference to the driver network database 131 as well as othercomponents of the system 100.

The account management function is provided primarily by an accountmanagement module 117, utilising accounts information stored in theoperational database 130 along with other components of the system 100.

The operational database 130 stores details of every account held withthe operator of the system 100. Each account is identified by an accountnumber stored in the operational database 130. The accounts informationstored in the operational database 130 may also include an account name,such as a company name and contact details for the company. The accountsinformation stored in the operational database 130 stores credit carddetails and/or other payment details so that payment can be taken fromthe account holder if permitted. A password and/or PIN (personalidentification number) is associated with each account and stored withthe accounts information in the operational database 130. Furthermore, alist of persons authorised to make bookings on the account may bestored, and optionally profiles for the individual authorised personswithin the accounts.

The accounts information stored in the operational database 130 may alsoinclude a contact name and telephone number of a person who should becontacted in case of problems with the account. The accounts informationstored in the operational database 130 includes information regardinginvoicing preferences, for example the frequency of invoicing, date onwhich the invoice should be sent, the monthly/weekly credit limit andwhat information from each booking should be included on the invoice.The accounts information stored in the operational database 130 mayindicate whether each account is active, or if it has been placed onhold. An account may be placed on hold by a credit control departmentand this may prevent further bookings being made on the account.Historical data of spending on the account may also be stored in theoperational database 130, or this may be stored in the historicaldatabase 132.

The record keeping function is provided primarily by the historicaldatabase 132, although the operational database 130 and the drivernetwork database 131 also provide some record keeping function.

In brief, a fleet of private hire vehicles is managed by the system 100.Each vehicle has a respective record in the driver network database 131,as will now be described.

The driver network database 131 stores information about every vehiclein the fleet. The registration number (license plate number) of eachvehicle is stored in the driver network database 131. This may be usedto identify each vehicle. Alternatively or in addition, a uniqueidentifier separate from the registration number may be assigned to eachvehicle as the primary means of identification within the driver networkdatabase 131.

Each Service is defined according to its vehicle type, capacity andother characteristics. In some embodiments, these types are “Up to 4passengers”, “Up to 7 passengers”, “Electric vehicle”, “VIP” and “Up to4 passengers with luggage”. The driver network database 131 stores thetype of each vehicle and may also store a corresponding number or shortstring of characters which represents each type. Any special equipmentsuch as a baby seat or the ability to accommodate a wheelchair is alsoidentified in the driver network database 131. The driver networkdatabase 131 indicates the current driver to whom the car is assigned,although the driver/vehicle allocation changes from time to time.

The driver network database 131 stores the make and model and optionallythe colour of each vehicle. The driver network database 131 alsoindicates the current status of the vehicle. In some embodiments, thestatus is chosen from “Driver Pool”, meaning that the car is in use by adriver, “Free Pool”, meaning that the car is not currently being usedand is free to be allocated to a driver and “Workshop”, meaning that thecar is undergoing maintenance or repair. The driver network database 131also stores the private hire license number (PCO) for each vehicle andthe date on which this license expires as well as the road tax, vehicleinsurance and MOT (vehicle roadworthiness certificate) expiry dates ifappropriate. Examples of other data which may be stored are the date ofpurchase of the vehicle, the price paid for the vehicle, the date ofmanufacture, the supplier of the vehicle, warranty information and thedate of the last inspection/maintenance.

Historic data about each vehicle may also be stored in the drivernetwork database 131, such as a record of the previous registrationnumbers and a record of the previous drivers who were assigned to thevehicle. The service history and details of any accidents and repairsmay also be stored.

The fleet of private hire vehicles is driven by a pool of drivers, eachof which has a record in the driver network database 131.

The driver network database 131 stores information about each of thedrivers registered with the operator of the system 100. The informationrelating to drivers includes personal data such as name, contact details(including phone number, home address), date of birth, next of kin anddriver account data. Driver status information may be stored to indicatewhether a driver is active or inactive, whether the driver has beenallocated a vehicle etc. Each driver may also be assigned an individualand unique identifier as a means of identifying the driver. Callsignsmay also be used to denote drivers and are stored in the driver networkdatabase 131, although callsigns can be changed and reallocated betweendrivers as long as the same callsign is not in use by two drivers at thesame time.

Driver account data includes an account number. Other information mayinclude a driver's insurance details, a driver's length of service inthe fleet, details of parking fines, historical wage information,holiday leave, driver diary information, information regarding paymentcollections from drivers, driver's license number, national insurance(social security) number, details relating to a driver's taxicab license(such as Public Carriage Office (PCO) license), driver banking details(account number, sort code etc.). Miscellaneous information such asdetails of any allergies, smoker/non-smoker etc. may also be stored inthe driver network database 131. Information regarding driver equipmentsuch as a serial number of the driver's device 110 allocated to thedriver, and mobile phone number of their driver's device 110 and theirprivate mobile phone may also be recorded. Statistical information suchas date of last job or historical earnings data may be recorded in thedriver network database 131, or this may be recorded in the historicaldatabase 132.

Information relating to payments to and from drivers may be stored inthe driver network database 131. Payments to the driver include adriver's wages. Driver outgoings may include, for example, car washcharges, insurance premiums, PCO renewal fee, accident costs, vehiclerental. To assist in maintaining this information, a purchase ledgernumber and contract number relating to each driver may be stored.

Each driver has an associated driver's device 110, three of which areshown at 110A, 110B and 110C in FIG. 5a and FIG. 5b . The driver'sdevices 110 are portable electronic devices that are provided withwireless communication facilities. The driver's devices 110 may take anysuitable form, but typically are smart phones or personal digitalassistants or such like. The driver's devices no include a display andone or more input devices such as a keyboard, a voice control module ora touch screen or any combination thereof.

The driver's devices 110 are connected to the driver's devices server107 via radio network 111, which may for instance be a mobile phone(cellular phone) network. In this case, the driver's devices 110 areprovided with subscriptions to the mobile phone network such that theycan send digital data to and from the driver's devices server 107.Additionally, messages are able to be passed between the driver'sdevices no and the driver's devices server 107 through other media, andin particular SMS (short message service) messages and optionally alsoMMS (multimedia message service) messages.

The radio network 111 may alternatively be a dedicated radio network,for instance a private mobile phone network or a private radio networkof some other type.

Data may be communicated between the driver's devices 110 and driver'sdevices server 107 over any suitable communications link, for instanceusing a data channel of a cellular telephone network such as a GSM,EDGE, GPRS, UMTS, HSxPA or LTE network.

The driver's devices 110 are configured to report their locations to thedriver network database 131 at regular intervals, for instance 30 secondintervals. The driver's devices 110 include GPS (global positioningsystem) receivers, which calculate the locations of the driver's devices110 under control of the software applications executing on the driver'sdevices 110. Alternatively, they may include some other positioningmodule or device that is operable to calculate the positions of thedriver's devices 110 with a suitable level of accuracy and resolution.

A private hire vehicle may be booked by a customer in one of three ways.Firstly, a private hire vehicle may be booked in a telephoneconversation with a call centre operator. In this case, the customerinitiates a telephone call with a call centre, an agent of whichoperates one of the call centre computer terminals 104A and 104B. Thecall centre agent then operates the terminal 104A, 104B so as to makethe booking of the private hire vehicle according to the customer'srequirements. The customer's requirements are obtained verbally duringthe telephone conversation between the customer and the agent.

In the second option, the customer may make the private hire vehiclebooking using a browser application on a computing device 113, threeexamples of which are shown at 113A, 113B and 113C in FIG. 5a and FIG.5b . Each of the computing devices 113 is connected to the web bookingserver 102 by a network 114, which may for instance be the Internet oranother public or private network. The web booking server 102 includesweb server functionality that causes display of suitable web pages bythe browser of the terminal 113. The customer's requirements withrespect to the private hire vehicle booking are obtained by the webbooking server 102 through the provision of suitable pages to thecomputer terminal 113 requesting the provision of the requiredinformation by the customer. The information may be provided by thecustomer through free text entry through the use of drop down lists,radio buttons etc. Some information may be pre-filled into the web pagesprovided by the web booking server 102.

Booking through the web booking server 102 may require the customer tologin to a web portal before they can make their booking. The logging inmay require the entering of a username and a password or PIN number.Through the control of a web session by the web booking server 102, forinstance using cookies provided to the computer terminals 113, thebooking can be known to have been validly made by virtue of the customerhaving being logged in to the web booking server at the time the bookingwas made.

The final way in which a customer can make a booking of a private hirevehicle is using a dedicated software application that is installed onand running on a portable communications device 112, three of which areshown at 112A, 112B and 112C in FIGS. 5a and 5b . The portablecommunications devices 112 may take any suitable form, but typically aresmart phones, feature phones, tablet computers or personal digitalassistants or such like. The communication devices 112 are coupled tothe application booking server 103 by a radio network 111, which may bethe same as the radio network 111 described above with relation to thedriver's devices 110 and the driver's devices 107.

The application is configured to provide a user interface that allowsthe customer to provide the software application with the informationrequired to make the private hire vehicle booking. For instance, thesoftware application, when executed, may cause the display ofinteractive pages that allow the customer to select or enter therequired information. The software application is configured also tocommunicate the information relating to the booking that has beenprovided by the customer to the application booking server 103. If basedon information provided by the customer it is determined that theapplication booking server 103 requires additional information, thesoftware application running the mobile device 112 is configured toprovide an interactive display to the customer such that the customercan provide the information, following which the software applicationcauses it to be provided to the application booking server 103.

The customer may be required to log in to the software application onthe mobile device 112, prior to making a booking. Logging in to thesoftware application may require a username and a password or PINnumber. Alternatively, the username may be entered during set up of theapplication and may not need to be entered subsequently when thissoftware application is executed. If the username is not required to beentered, the user may log in to the software application simply byentering the password or PIN number.

The information about the private hire vehicle booking that is obtainedduring the booking process is as follows.

-   -   Customer details. The customer details may be the name of the        customer or an identifier that uniquely identifies the customer        within the operational database 130.    -   Service type. This indicates the category of vehicle. For        instance, the service type may indicate a vehicle of a standard        type and having four seats, or a vehicle of a standard type and        having seven seats. The service may alternatively indicate a VIP        vehicle, or an environmentally-friendly (electric or hybrid)        vehicle (also known as a green vehicle).    -   Journey type. The journey type may be a single (one-way) trip,        or it may be a wait and return trip. The journey type may        alternatively be a journey including multiple pickup locations        or multiple drop-off locations or both multiple pickup and        multiple drop-off locations. The journey type may alternatively        indicate that it is a pickup from an airport or a drop at an        airport.    -   Pickup address. This indicates an address at which the customer        is to be picked up at the beginning of the journey. The address        is a natural language address. The address is selected from one        of the plurality of addresses stored in a database. The        addresses may be stored in the operational database 130 or the        historical database 132, or they may be provided by an external        address database service, for instance geo.me or qas.co.uk. The        addresses each have associated therewith a verified coordinate        location expressed in latitude and longitude. Multiple databases        may be used (in a hierarchical fashion) for address lookup. The        pickup address may be selected by the customer in any suitable        way, with the most appropriate way depending on whether the        customer is using the software application on their mobile        device, using the web booking service or using an agent in a        call centre. If the journey type is an airport pickup type, the        pickup address indicates the airport and terminal and optionally        flight number.    -   Drop-off address. The drop-off address again is selected from        one of multiple addresses stored in the database and is selected        by the customer in any suitable way. If the journey type is an        airport drop-off type, the pickup address indicates the airport        and terminal and optionally flight number.    -   Pickup date and time. This indicates a time and date which the        customer requires the journey to start. Alternatively, the date        and time may indicate ASAP (as soon as possible), if the        customer requires the private hire vehicle at the earliest        opportunity.

Optional information regarding the booking includes the following.

-   -   Customer's reference. This can be provided for instance as free        text or selected from a drop-down menu. If a reference is        provided, this information can be included in an account        statement against a journey at a later date.    -   Additional comments. This is free text that provides any        potentially relevant information, and may be provided to the        driver once the booking has been allocated.

The system 100 comprises a journey cost calculation module 122. The costcalculation module 122 executes software code which determines the pricefor a requested journey, during the booking process and prior to vehicleallocation. Journey cost calculation is performed at the time of abooking and the result returned to the customer requesting the booking.The resulting cost for the journey is provided before the customerconfirms the booking.

The journey cost calculation module 122 uses a number of different waysof calculating the base cost of the journey. The module 122 may set afixed price for some journeys. These are agreed in advance with aparticular account customer for journeys between pre-determined points.The journey cost calculation module 122 checks whether the bookedjourney and customer meet the requirements for a fixed price tariff. Ifthe conditions are not met, then another pricing method is used. Thejourney cost calculation module 122 may use zonal pricing if a fixedprice is not used. Where every point on the journey is within a definedzone, zonal pricing can be used. If neither fixed pricing nor zonalpricing is used, or if the conditions for their application are not met,then the journey cost calculation module 122 may use an A to B (A-B)pricing method. The A-B method may specify the number of units betweenpoints A and B. A unit price depending on the type of vehicle etc. isthen used to calculate the price. If there is no A-B record for aparticular journey, the crow fly (direct) distance (i.e. the length of astraight line between the pickup and drop-off locations) is used tocalculate the base cost for the journey. This method may use map gridreferences or alternatively may be based on GPS data, i.e. the latitudeand longitude of the pickup and drop-off points.

The journey cost calculation module 122 may retrieve all the map andlocation information needed to make these calculations from thehistorical database 132. The historical database 132 may store adetailed geospatial model of a particular region, such as a city. As analternative, or in addition to the methods described above, the journeycost calculation module 122 may use the real road distance for thejourney, which is calculated using the road map from the historicaldatabase 132 and a route planning algorithm. Different rates may be usedfor different parts of a single journey. For example a first per milerate may be used for the first 10 miles of a journey and a second permile rate may be used for the rest of the journey. The historicaldatabase 132 may also store information regarding speed limits andhistorical traffic data. This information may also be used by thejourney cost calculation module 122 to calculate an estimated time forthe journey. The estimated journey time may then form the basis of thecost calculation.

Other criteria used by the journey cost calculation module 122 whencalculating the price are the type of vehicle (VIP, green, 7-seateretc.) including any special facilities the vehicle has, the method ofpayment and the date and time of the journey. The cost calculationmodule 122 may also apply a flat “pickup fee” for every journey.

The journey cost calculation module 122 may also determine how much ofthe fare charged to the customer is passed to the driver. This may be asimple percentage of the total fare or a more complex calculation basedon one or more of journey time, distance, waiting time and number ofpassengers.

Various examples of allocating vehicle resources to vehiclerequirements, including advance vehicle requests and other futurevehicle requirements, are described in this disclosure. According to theexample private hire booking service context, the allocation functionallocates a vehicle and driver to a booking. The allocation function isdescribed in some detail below. In brief, a vehicle and driver areallocated to the booking, and the associated customer, having regard toa number of factors including the pickup location specified in thebooking, the drop-off location specified in the booking, the servicetype specified in the booking, the date and time specified in thebooking, the geographical distribution of the vehicles that are managedby the system 100, the demand for vehicles that are managed by thesystem 100 and information relating to the drivers.

The allocation function is automatic insofar as it does not require anymanual involvement once the booking has been made. Once a job has beenallocated to a particular driver and a particular vehicle, this isrecorded in the operational database 130 with an indication that thejourney has not yet been traveled.

The vehicle and driver management function includes a number offeatures. These include the monitoring of vehicle in terms of distancetraveled etc. and ensuring that they provided for mechanical servicingat appropriate times. Drivers are managed also to ensure thatdocumentation relating to private hire vehicle licenses, insurance etc.is in place. Additionally, the function maintains a record of hoursworked and jobs performed, along with any other relevant information.

The accounts management function acts to manage information relating tocustomer's accounts with the operator of the system 100. This includesthe maintenance and management of information such as authorised users,credit limits, invoicing requirement etc.

The record keeping function acts to store various information that iscreated by or observed by the system 100. This information includesinformation about bookings yet to be fulfilled, which is included in theoperational database 130.

Instead of the database functions being provided by a small number ofdatabases, in the above embodiments the operational database 130 and thedriver network database 131, as well as the historical database 132 (asshown in FIG. 5a ), the functions may be split between a higher numberof databases, as shown in the system 100 of FIG. 5b . Reference numeralsare retained from FIG. 5a for like elements, and these elements are notdescribed again here to avoid repetition.

In the FIG. 5b system, an accounts database 119 is configured to storethe detail of every account held with the operator of the system 100.The record keeping function is provided primarily by a journeystravelled database 108 and a map and locations database 109, as well asother components of the system 100. Each vehicle has a respective recordin a vehicle database 121. Each driver has a record in a driver database120. Pickup and drop-off addresses are selected from one of theplurality of addresses stored in an address database 115. Once a job hasbeen allocated to a particular driver and a particular vehicle, this isrecorded in the journeys traveled database 108 along with an indicationthat the journey has not yet been traveled.

An example sequence of steps that may be performed by a system (e.g.,system 100) during execution of an example booking job will now bedescribed with reference to FIG. 6. This shows execution of a relativelysimple job in which there is one pickup location, one drop-off location,no driver reallocation and no variation in the journey. Additionally,journey costing and invoicing are not covered by FIG. 6.

The operation starts at step 601. At step 602, a booking is accepted bythe system 100. Alternative ways for accepting a booking or other typeof vehicle request are described above with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 5a, and FIG. 5 b.

At step 603, the booking is confirmed to the customer, for instance byemail. The message sent to the customer by the system 100 includes abooking reference number and some or all of the information relating tothe booking, including the pickup and drop-off locations, the date andtime of pickup etc.

At step 604, the system 100 saves the booking until it is time to startallocation. For an ASAP job, allocation may commence straight away.Otherwise, allocation may start a fixed time before the date and timespecified for pickup in the booking information, as is described in moredetail below.

At step 605, the system allocates a driver and a vehicle to the job.Some examples of allocating a vehicle are discussed in relation to FIG.3 and FIG. 4. On allocating the vehicle, the status of the vehicle anddriver is changed from “Available” to “Allocated”. This prevents thevehicle/driver being allocated to a different job until the statuschanges to a suitable status.

At step 606, the system 100 sends a message to the customer with detailsof the allocated vehicle. The message includes text such as ‘Yourvehicle is on its way’. The message also indicates the job number, whichmay be the same as the booking number. The message also indicates theidentity of the vehicle, so that it can be readily identified by thecustomer. The identity of the vehicle may be indicated for instance bythe registration or license plate that is provided on the vehicle. Itmay also indicate the make and model of the vehicle, and/or the colourof the vehicle. Additionally, the message includes information by whichthe customer can contact the driver that has been allocated to the job.For instance, it may include the mobile telephone number of the driver.Providing the mobile telephone number of the driver allows the customerto call the driver with any comments or questions that they may havebefore the customer is collected by the vehicle. Additionally, themessage includes a hyperlink to a webpage at which the location of thevehicle is shown on a map. This allows the customer to identify wherethe vehicle is at any stage between the vehicle being allocated to thejob and the customer being collected by the vehicle.

At step 607, the system 100 sends a message to the driver with detailsof the job. The message includes various pieces of information includingthe name of the customer. This allows the driver to confirm the customerwhen the driver meets the customer at the pickup location. The messagealso includes the pickup location and the drop-off location. The pickuplocation and drop-off location may be provided in the message in such away that they can be extracted by the driver's device no andautomatically placed into a navigation application that is present onthe driver's device 110. This allows the driver to commence theprovision by the driver's device 110 of navigation guidance to thepickup location in response to the driver selecting the pickup locationby way of an input on the driver's device 110. Similarly, after thecustomer has been collected at the pickup location, the driver can causethe device 110 to commence providing route guidance to the drop-offlocation by providing a suitable input on the driver's device 110.

The system 100 may comprise a route planning module configured to run aroute planning algorithm. The route planning module may access the mapand location database 109 in order to calculate a route. The routeplanning module may also access historical traffic data in thehistorical database 132 and/or live traffic information in order to moreaccurately predict the fastest route. Once a driver has indicated thatthey have picked up a customer, the route planning module may provideroute guidance to the driver via the driver's device 110. The routeguidance may be in the form of navigation instructions. Having acentralised route planning and guidance providing system avoids the needfor the driver to provide their own route guidance device and to keepsuch a device updated.

At step 608, the system 100 receives a POB (passenger on board) messagefrom the driver. This message is transmitted by the driver's device 110in response to the driver indicating that they have collected thecustomer from the pickup location. The option to indicate POB status isprovided to the driver once the driver device 110 determines that thevehicle has arrived at the pickup location, or is within a predeterminedradius (e.g. 50 m) of the pickup location and has become stationary.However, the sending of the POB message from the driver's device 110 isnot automatic. In this step, the status of the vehicle/driver is changedfrom “Allocated” to “POB”.

Following receiving the POB message from the driver, the system 100 atstep 609 records that the customer has been picked up. Next, the system100 receives a drop-off message from the driver at step 610. This ismessage is sent by the device 110 after the driver indicates to thedriver's device 110 that the customer has been deposited at the drop-offlocation. The option to indicate that the customer has been dropped offmay be provided to the driver upon the driver's device 110 determiningthat the vehicle has reached the drop-off location or is within apredetermined radius (e.g. 50 m) of the drop-off location and has becomestationary. However, the sending of the drop-off message from thedriver's device 110 is not automatic.

After the drop-off message has been received from the driver's device110 at step 611, the system 100 completes a journey record for thejourney in the operational database 130 (the record was created duringthe booking process). The record of the journey stored in theoperational database 130 includes the following information. The recordincludes the pickup address and the drop-off address. The informationalso includes the pickup time and date and, if different, the bookingtime and date. The record also includes the drop-off time and date, asdetected by the system 100 in response to receiving the drop-off messagefrom the driver at step 610. The record also includes the cost of thejourney, in terms of financial value.

The record also includes the traveled distance, which is not the crowfly (direct) distance between the pickup and drop-off locations butinstead is the road distance traveled by the vehicle. The record alsoincludes the journey time, in terms of minutes and seconds. The recordalso includes vehicle type information that indicates the type ofvehicle that performs the journey.

The record also includes the booking information relating to thejourney, which may include information about the identity of thecustomer that made the booking, the time of making the booking, the modeof making the booking (e.g. web, application or call centre) and anyother relevant information relating to the booking.

Next, at step 612 the driver and vehicle are reallocated to the pool ofavailable drivers. This is achieved by changing the status of thevehicle/driver to “Available” from “POB”.

The customer is then messaged with a receipt for the journey traveled,if required, at step 613. Lastly, the operation ends at step 614.

In some embodiments, the vehicle resources are autonomous vehicles, alsoknown as driverless vehicles or driverless cars. Where the system 100comprises autonomous vehicles, each driver device 110 is replaced withan on-board control system, which can be termed an autonomous modecontroller. The autonomous mode controller controls the speed anddirection of the autonomous vehicle and maintains an accurate record ofthe autonomous (unmanned) vehicle's location and orientation. Autonomousdriving sensors may include any number of devices configured to generatesignals that help navigate the vehicle while the vehicle is operating inan autonomous (e.g., driverless) mode. The autonomous vehicle maycomprise a number of cameras and other sensors, including LIDAR and/orradar sensors, which feed information about the vehicle's surroundingsto the autonomous mode controller. The information includes theposition, constitution, orientation and velocity of nearby objects,including other vehicles. The autonomous driving sensors help thevehicle “see” the roadway and the vehicle surroundings and/or negotiatevarious obstacles while the vehicle is operating in the autonomous mode.The autonomous mode controller may communicate with the core system 101via the radio network 111 using any suitable protocol.

The autonomous mode controller may be configured to control one or moresubsystems while the vehicle is operating in the autonomous mode.Examples of subsystems that may be controlled by the autonomous modecontroller may include a brake subsystem, a suspension subsystem, asteering subsystem, and a powertrain subsystem. The autonomous modecontroller may control any one or more of these subsystems by outputtingsignals to control units associated with these subsystems. Theautonomous mode controller may control the subsystems based, at least inpart, on signals generated by the autonomous driving sensors.

The autonomous vehicles may have on-board route planning modules as partof the autonomous mode controller. Upon the autonomous vehicle receivinginformation representing a start and end location for a route, theon-board route planning module accesses the map and location database109 and optionally traffic data in the historical database 132 and/orlive traffic information to calculate a best route. The autonomousvehicle may also be given information representing one or more waypointsto travel to between the start and end locations, or a number ofwaypoints or locations which can be traveled to in any order. The routeplanning module may then calculate the most efficient route to take tovisit each of the locations.

Alternatively, the autonomous vehicle may not have an on-board routeplanning module and may instead receive route information, i.e.information specifying one or more routes, or navigation instructionsfrom the core system 101.

The autonomous mode controller of each autonomous vehicle may also bepre-programmed to cause the autonomous vehicle to travel to and wait ata particular location when the vehicle does not have particular startand end points or waypoints to travel to. Alternatively, when theautonomous vehicle is not undertaking a specific journey (i.e. when itis idle), the autonomous mode controller may cause the autonomousvehicle to adhere to one of a number of predetermined circuits orroutes. The particular predetermined circuit or route chosen by theautonomous mode controller may depend on the location of the vehiclewhen it becomes idle.

As discussed with respect to various embodiments in this disclosure, avehicle resource allocation system (e.g., the system 10, the system 100)may comprise one or more servers. Whether a system for a particularembodiment includes one or multiple servers, each server preferablyincludes a number of features as will now be described with reference toFIG. 7. FIG. 7 shows one server 700. If a system (e.g., the system 10,the system 100) comprises plural servers, multiple versions of the FIG.7 server 700 may be connected together.

Each server 700 includes a processor 712. The processor 712 is connectedto volatile memory such as RAM 713 by a bus 718. The bus 718 alsoconnects the processor 112 and the RAM 713 to non-volatile memory, suchas ROM 714. A communications interface 715 is coupled to the bus 718,and thus also to the processor 712 and the memories 713, 714. Theinterface 715 is connected to a communications network (e.g., a radionetwork) in any suitable way, for instance via the Internet or a localnetwork. Within the ROM 714 is stored a software application 717, whichincludes program code that causes the server to perform the functionsrequired of it. An operating system (OS) 720 also is stored in the ROM714.

An output device such as a display 719 may be provided with the server700. An input device such as a keyboard 721 may be provided with theserver 700. This allows configuration, monitoring and updating byadministrators and other users as required.

The server 700 may take any suitable form. Generally speaking, theserver 700 comprises processing circuitry 712, including one or moreprocessors, and a storage device 714, 713, comprising a single memoryunit or a plurality of memory units. The storage device 714, 713 storescomputer program instructions that, when loaded into the processingcircuitry 712, control the operation of the server 700.

The term ‘memory’ when used in this specification is intended to relateprimarily to memory comprising both non-volatile memory and volatilememory unless the context implies otherwise, although the term may alsocover one or more volatile memories only, one or more non-volatilememories only, or one or more volatile memories and one or morenon-volatile memories. Examples of volatile memory include RAM, DRAM,SDRAM etc. Examples of non-volatile memory include ROM, PROM, EEPROM,flash memory, optical storage, magnetic storage, etc.

Reference to “computer-readable storage medium”, “computer programproduct”, “tangibly embodied computer program” etc., or a “processor” or“processing circuit” etc. should be understood to encompass not onlycomputers having differing architectures such as single/multi-processorarchitectures and sequencers/parallel architectures, but alsospecialised circuits such as field programmable gate arrays FPGA,application specify circuits ASIC, signal processing devices and otherdevices. References to computer program, instructions, code etc. shouldbe understood to express software for a programmable processor firmwaresuch as the programmable content of a hardware device as instructionsfor a processor or configured or configuration settings for a fixedfunction device, gate array, programmable logic device, etc.

It should be realised that the foregoing embodiments are not to beconstrued as limiting and that other variations and modifications willbe evident to those skilled in the art and are intended to beencompassed by the claims unless expressly excluded by the claimlanguage when taking into account equivalents. Some such alternativesand modifications will now be described.

In the above, journey cost calculation is performed at the time of abooking and the result returned to the customer requesting the booking.Cost calculation may alternatively be performed ahead of the bookingbeing made (for instance on the basis of an agreed tariff), at the endof fulfillment of the booking, or at a later time.

Additionally, the cost scoring of a vehicle against a booking may beperformed in any suitable way. Also, cost scoring may be performed onlyonce and the best vehicle allocated at that time, rather than costscoring being performed until it is decided to allocate a vehicle.

Instead of selecting vehicles for the candidate pool of vehicles basedsolely on crow fly distance, vehicles may be selected based on zoning oftheir current location. For instance, in respect of a pickup location ina certain zone, all vehicles that are currently located in the same zoneor a zone that borders that zone may be selected for inclusion in thepool of candidate vehicles. If zone information is stored in the map andlocation database 109 (or another database) as part of the currentlocation information for vehicles, using zone information in theselection of candidate vehicles may be particularly computationallynon-intensive. The use of zones also allows barriers (such as rivers)between geographically proximate areas to be taken into account whenclassifying whether or not zones are adjacent.

Instead of calculating the allocation buffer value only for the bestscoring vehicle, the allocation buffer value may instead be calculatedfor the 2, 3 or 4 best scoring vehicles. Although this can increase thenumber of allocation buffer values that need to be performed, it mayincrease the likelihood that the allocated vehicle will arrive at thepickup location prior to the booking start time or at the booking starttime.

Instead of waiting until a predetermined number of minutes before thebooking start time before commencing allocation, the number of minutesmay for instance be a function of the number of bookings with starttimes in a certain period, the number of ‘available’ vehicles in thefleet and/or the density of ‘available’ vehicles in the area of thepickup location.

Moreover, the disclosure of the present application should be understoodto include any novel features or any novel combination of featureseither explicitly or implicitly disclosed herein or in anygeneralisation thereof and during prosecution of the present applicationor of any application derived therefrom, new claims may be formulated tocover any such features and/or combination of such features.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for allocating networked vehicleresources to vehicle requirements, the system comprising: a vehicleresource allocation module configured to receive vehicle requests from aplurality of requester devices; a vehicle resource location monitoringmodule in communication with and configured to monitor respectivecurrent locations for a plurality of vehicle resources, each vehicleresource being associated with a respective vehicle location, whereineach vehicle resource is associated with a respective vehicle resourcedevice comprising a positioning component that is configured todetermine a respective current location of the vehicle resource; atleast one processor in communication with the vehicle resourceallocation module and with the vehicle resource location monitoringmodule; and a computer-readable medium in communication with the atleast one processor, the computer-readable medium storing instructionsthat when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least oneprocessor to: a) store, by the vehicle resource allocation module,plural vehicle requirements in the form of plural vehicle requests, eachvehicle request including at least a respective start time and arespective start location, wherein for each vehicle requirement of theplural vehicle requirements the respective start time and the respectivestart location have been received from an associated one of theplurality of requester devices; b) for a first vehicle request of theplural vehicle requests, dynamically select, by the vehicle resourceallocation module, a time-ahead value (X) representing a predeterminedtime ahead of the start time of the first vehicle request at which tobegin an allocation process for the first vehicle request; and afterdynamically selecting the time-ahead value (X), automatically determine,by the vehicle resource allocation module, that a difference between acurrent time and the start time of the first vehicle request is notgreater than the time-ahead value (X); c) in response to the determiningat step b): automatically detect, by the vehicle resource locationmonitoring module, a respective current location for each vehicleresource of the plurality of vehicle resources; automatically determine,by the vehicle resource allocation module, a respective direct distancefrom the respective current location of each vehicle resource of theplurality of vehicle resources, to the start location included in thefirst vehicle request; and after determining the respective directdistance to the start location for each vehicle resource, automaticallyselect, by the vehicle resource allocation module, a predeterminednumber (Y) of vehicle resources based on the respective direct distancesto the start location and based on respective vehicle resource statusesassociated with the vehicle resources, and without calculatingrespective routes and travel distances to the start location for eachvehicle resource, thereby forming a pool of (Y) plural candidate vehicleresources, each of said candidate vehicle resources being for possiblefulfillment of the first vehicle request; d) for each said candidatevehicle resource in the pool of (Y) plural candidate vehicle resources,automatically calculate, by the vehicle resource allocation module, arespective score that is related to the suitability of the candidatevehicle resource to fulfil the first vehicle request, wherein thesuitability is without regard to the respective journey time of eachcandidate vehicle resource to the start location; e) for each of only anumber (Z) of the candidate vehicle resources in the pool of (Y) pluralcandidate vehicle resources selected by the vehicle resource allocationmodule based on their respective scores and a threshold score,automatically calculate, by the vehicle resource allocation module, arespective journey time from the candidate vehicle resource's associatedvehicle location to the start location included in the first vehiclerequest, wherein (Z) is less than (Y); f) at a given time, automaticallydetermine, by the vehicle resource allocation module, whether there is aneed to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request, usingboth: 1) the respective scores calculated for the (Z) candidate vehicleresources selected from the pool of (Y) plural candidate vehicleresources, and 2) the calculated one or more respective journey timesfor the (Z) candidate vehicle resources, wherein automaticallydetermining whether there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource tothe first vehicle request comprises: determining that a respective scorecalculated for a candidate vehicle resource in step d) is better thanrespective scores calculated for all other candidate vehicle resourcesin the pool of (Y) plural candidate vehicle resources; determining, forthe candidate vehicle resource having the best respective score, anallocation buffer value by performing one of the following:  multiplyingthe respective calculated journey time from that candidate vehicleresource's associated vehicle location to the start location by apredetermined factor,  determining a fixed time value, or  calculating asum of a number of values, each value corresponding to a respective zonethrough which the candidate vehicle resource would need to travel toreach the start location; determining, for the candidate vehicleresource having the best respective score, a sum of the allocationbuffer value for that candidate vehicle resource and the respectivecalculated journey time from that candidate vehicle resource'sassociated vehicle location to the start location included in the firstvehicle request; and determining whether the sum of the allocationbuffer value and the respective calculated journey time meets apredetermined relationship with respect to a time remaining from thecurrent time to the start time of the first vehicle request; g)automatically repeat performance of steps d), e) and f) at at least twodifferent times for the first vehicle request until it is determined atstep f) that there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the firstvehicle request; h) on determining at step f) that there is a need toallocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request, automaticallyselect a vehicle resource of the (Z) candidate vehicle resources toallocate to the first vehicle request based on the respective scorescalculated on last performance of step d); and i) in response toselecting the vehicle resource at h), automatically transmit a signal toa vehicle resource device associated with the selected vehicle resource,the signal indicating that the selected vehicle resource is to proceedto the start location included with the first vehicle request, tofulfill the first vehicle request.
 2. The system of claim 1, whereinautomatically detecting, by the vehicle resource location monitoringmodule, the respective current location for each vehicle resource of theplurality of vehicle resources, comprises: receiving, by the vehicleresource location monitoring module, for each vehicle resource of theplurality of vehicle resources, an indication of the respective currentlocation of the vehicle resource.
 3. The system of claim 2, whereinreceiving the indication of the respective current location of thevehicle resource comprises: receiving the indication of the respectivecurrent location from the vehicle resource.
 4. The system of claim 2,wherein receiving the indication of the respective current locationassociated with the vehicle resource comprises: receiving the indicationof the respective current location from a location service incommunication with the vehicle resource.
 5. The system of claim 1,wherein the first vehicle request comprises a request for a firstresponder vehicle.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first vehiclerequest comprises a customer booking for a private hire vehicle, andwherein the start location is a pickup location for the customerbooking.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first vehicle requestcomprises a request to send a vehicle to a search location.
 8. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the first vehicle request comprises a requestfor an autonomous vehicle.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein theinstructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the atleast one processor to perform automatically selecting a vehicleresource of the (Z) candidate vehicle resources to allocate to the firstvehicle request at step h) by: automatically selecting the vehicleresource having the best respective score calculated on the lastperformance of step d) to allocate to the first vehicle request.
 10. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the respective vehicle location associatedwith the candidate vehicle resource comprises the current location ofthe candidate vehicle resource.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein therespective vehicle location associated with the candidate vehicleresource comprises a drop-off location of a customer booking that thecandidate vehicle resource is currently fulfilling.
 12. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least oneprocessor to automatically calculate, by the vehicle resource allocationmodule, a respective journey time for each of only a number (Z) of thecandidate vehicle resources, direct the at least one processor to:choose, based on a respective vehicle resource status of a candidatevehicle resource, between: 1) calculating a respective journey time forthe candidate vehicle resource from the candidate vehicle resource'svehicle location by calculating a journey time from the respectivecurrent location of the candidate vehicle resource to the start locationincluded in the first vehicle request, and 2) calculating a respectivejourney time for the candidate vehicle resource from the candidatevehicle resource's associated vehicle location by calculating a journeytime from a drop-off location of a customer booking that the candidatevehicle resource is currently fulfilling to the start location includedin the first vehicle request.
 13. The system of claim 1, wherein theinstructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the atleast one processor to automatically select, by the vehicle resourceallocation module, the predetermined number (Y) of vehicle resourcesbased on the respective direct distances to the start location and basedon respective vehicle resource statuses associated with the vehicleresources, by: rejecting one or more vehicles of a fleet that have arespective vehicle resource status indicating that the vehicle of thefleet is potentially not able to fulfil the first vehicle request. 14.The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the atleast one processor direct the at least one processor to automaticallyselect, by the vehicle resource allocation module, the predeterminednumber (Y) of vehicle resources based on the respective direct distancesto the start location and based on respective vehicle resource statusesassociated with the vehicle resources, by: selecting the predeterminednumber (Y) of vehicle resources that are geographically closest to thestart location included in the first vehicle request based on therespective direct distances determined for the vehicle resources. 15.The system of claim 14, wherein the predetermined number (Y) is between10 and
 100. 16. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions whenexecuted by the at least one processor direct the at least one processorto perform step g) by: performing steps c), d), e) and f) at least twotimes for the first vehicle request until it is determined at step f)that there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehiclerequest.
 17. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions whenexecuted by the at least one processor direct the at least one processorto automatically calculate, by the vehicle resource allocation module, arespective score that is related to the suitability of the candidatevehicle resource to fulfil the vehicle request by: calculating subscores for each of plural factors and performing a mathematicaloperation on the sub scores.
 18. The system of claim 1, wherein theinstructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the atleast one processor to automatically calculate, by the vehicle resourceallocation module, a respective journey time from the vehicle locationassociated with the candidate vehicle resource, to the start locationincluded in the first vehicle request by: using historical or currentdata about traffic delays on one or more routes between the respectivecurrent location of the candidate vehicle resource and the startlocation included in the first vehicle request.
 19. The system of claim1, wherein the pool of (Y) plural candidate vehicle resources comprisesfewer than a total number of vehicle resources that are available tofulfil the first vehicle request.
 20. A method for a vehicle resourceallocation controller device to allocate networked vehicle resources tovehicle requirements, the method comprising: a) storing, by a vehicleresource allocation controller device, plural vehicle requirements inthe form of plural vehicle requests, each vehicle request including atleast a respective start time and a respective start location, whereinthe vehicle resource allocation controller device is in communicationwith a plurality of requester devices and is configured to receivevehicle requests from the plurality of requester devices, and whereinthe vehicle resource allocation controller device is in communicationwith a vehicle resource location monitoring module that is incommunication with and configured to monitor respective currentlocations for a plurality of vehicle resources, each vehicle resourcebeing associated with a respective vehicle location, wherein eachvehicle resource is associated with a respective vehicle resource devicecomprising a positioning component that is configured to determine arespective current location of the vehicle resource, wherein for eachvehicle requirement of the plural vehicle requirements the respectivestart time and the respective start location have been received from anassociated one of the plurality of requester devices; b) for a firstvehicle request of the plural vehicle requests, dynamically selecting,by the vehicle resource allocation controller device, a time-ahead valueN representing a predetermined time ahead of the start time of the firstvehicle request at which to begin an allocation process for the firstvehicle request; and after dynamically selecting the time-ahead value(X), automatically determining, by the vehicle resource allocationcontroller device, that difference between a current time and the starttime of the first vehicle request is not great than the time-ahead value(X); c) in response to the determining at step b): automaticallydetecting, using the vehicle resource location monitoring module, arespective current location for each vehicle resource of the pluralityof vehicle resources; automatically determining, by the vehicle resourceallocation controller device, a respective direct distance from therespective current location of each vehicle resource of the plurality ofvehicle resources, to the start location included in the first vehiclerequest; and after determining the respective direct distance to thestart location for each vehicle resource, automatically select, by thevehicle resource allocation module, a predetermined number (Y) ofvehicle resources based on the respective direct distances to the startlocation and based on respective associated vehicle resource statuses,and without calculating respective routes and travel distances to thestart location for each vehicle resource, thereby forming, by thevehicle resource allocation controller device, a pool of (Y) pluralcandidate vehicle resources, each of said candidate vehicle resourcesbeing for possible fulfillment of the first vehicle request; d) for eachsaid candidate vehicle resource in the pool of (Y) plural candidatevehicle resources, automatically calculating, by the vehicle resourceallocation controller device, a respective score that is related to thesuitability of the candidate vehicle resource to fulfil the firstvehicle request, wherein the suitability is without regard to therespective journey time of each candidate vehicle resource to the startlocation; e) for each of only a number (Z) of the candidate vehicleresources in the pool of (Y) plural candidate vehicle resources selectedby the vehicle resource allocation module based on their respectivescores and a threshold score, automatically calculating, by the vehicleresource allocation controller device, a respective journey time fromthe candidate vehicle resource's associated vehicle location to thestart location included in the first vehicle request, wherein (Z) isless than (Y); f) at a given time, automatically determining, by thevehicle resource allocation controller device, whether there is a needto allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request, usingboth: 1) the respective scores calculated for the (Z) candidate vehicleresources of the pool of (Y) plural candidate vehicle resources, and 2)the calculated one or more respective journey times for the (Z)candidate vehicle resources, wherein determining whether there is a needto allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request comprises:determining that a respective score calculated for a candidate vehicleresource in step d) is better than respective scores calculated for allother candidate vehicle resources in the pool of (Y) plural candidatevehicle resources; determining, for the candidate vehicle resourcehaving the best respective score, an allocation buffer value byperforming one of the following: multiplying the respective calculatedjourney time from that candidate vehicle resource's associated vehiclelocation to the start location by a predetermined factor; determining afixed time value, or calculating a sum of a number of values, each valuecorresponding to a respective zone through which the candidate vehicleresource would need to travel to reach the start location: determining,for the candidate vehicle resource having the best respective score, asum of the allocation buffer value for that candidate vehicle resourceand the respective calculated journey time from that candidate vehicleresource's associated vehicle location to the start location included inthe first vehicle request; and determining whether the sum of theallocation buffer value and the respective calculated journey time meetsa predetermined relationship with respect to a time remaining from thecurrent time to the start time of the first vehicle request; g)automatically repeat performance, by the vehicle resource allocationcontroller device, of steps d), e) and f) at at least two differenttimes for the first vehicle request until it is determined at step f)that there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehiclerequest; h) on determining at step f) that there is a need to allocate avehicle resource to the first vehicle request, automatically select, bythe vehicle resource allocation controller device, a vehicle resource ofthe (Z) candidate vehicle resources to allocate to the first vehiclerequest based on the respective scores calculated on last performance ofstep d); and i) in response to selecting the vehicle resource at h),automatically transmit a signal to a vehicle resource device associatedwith the selected vehicle resource, the signal indicating that theselected vehicle resource is to proceed to the start location includedwith the first vehicle request, to fulfill the first vehicle request.21. An apparatus for allocating networked vehicle resources to vehiclerequirements, the apparatus comprising: a processor in communicationwith: a plurality of requester devices, and a plurality of vehicleresources, each vehicle resource being associated with a respectivevehicle location, wherein each vehicle resource is associated with arespective vehicle resource device comprising a positioning componentthat is configured to determine a respective current location of thevehicle resource; a computer-readable medium in communication with theprocessor, the computer-readable medium storing instructions that whenexecuted by the processor direct the processor to: a) receive and storeplural vehicle requirements in the form of plural vehicle requests, eachvehicle request including at least a respective start time and arespective start location, wherein for each vehicle requirement of theplural vehicle requirements the respective start time and the respectivestart location have been received from an associated one of theplurality of requester devices; b) for a first vehicle request of theplural vehicle requests, dynamically select a time-ahead value (X)representing a predetermined time ahead of the start time of the firstvehicle request at which to begin an allocation process for the firstvehicle request; and after dynamically selecting the time-ahead value(X), automatically determine that a difference between a current timeand the start time of the first vehicle request is not greater than thetime-ahead value (X); c) in response to the determining at step b):automatically detect, by the vehicle resource location monitoringmodule, a respective current location for each vehicle resource of theplurality of vehicle resources; automatically determine a respectivedirect distance from the respective current location of each vehicleresource of the plurality of vehicle resources, to the start locationincluded in the first vehicle request; and after determining therespective direct distance to the start location for each vehicleresource, automatically select a predetermined number (Y) of vehicleresources based on the respective direct distances to the start locationand based on respective vehicle resource statuses associated with thevehicle resources, and without calculating respective routes and traveldistances to the start location for each vehicle resource, therebyforming a pool of (Y) plural candidate vehicle resources, each of saidcandidate vehicle resources being for possible fulfillment of the firstvehicle request; d) for each candidate vehicle resource in the pool of(Y) plural candidate vehicle resources, automatically calculate arespective score that is related to the suitability of the candidatevehicle resource to fulfil the first vehicle request, wherein thesuitability is without regard to the respective journey time of eachcandidate vehicle resource to the start location; e) for each of only anumber (Z) of the candidate vehicle resources in the pool of (Y) pluralcandidate vehicle resources selected based on their respective scoresand a threshold score, automatically calculate a respective journey timefrom the candidate vehicle resource's associated vehicle location to thestart location included in the first vehicle request, wherein (Z) isless than (Y); f) at a given time, automatically determine whether thereis a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request,using both: 1) the respective scores calculated for the (Z) candidatevehicle resources of the pool of (Y) plural candidate vehicle resources,and 2) the calculated one or more respective journey times for the (Z)candidate vehicle resources, wherein determining whether there is a needto allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request comprises: determining that a respective score calculated for a candidate vehicleresource in step d) is better than respective scores calculated for allother candidate vehicle resources in the pool of (Y) plural candidatevehicle resources;  determining, for the candidate vehicle resourcehaving the best respective score, an allocation buffer value byperforming one of the following:  multiplying the respective calculatedjourney time from that candidate vehicle resource's associated vehiclelocation to the start location by a predetermined factor,  determining afixed time value, or  calculating a sum of a number of values, eachvalue corresponding to a respective zone through which the candidatevehicle resource would need to travel to reach the start location; determining, for the candidate vehicle resource having the bestrespective score, a sum of the allocation buffer value for thatcandidate vehicle resource and the respective calculated journey timefrom that candidate vehicle resource's associated vehicle location tothe start location included in the first vehicle request; and determining whether the sum of the allocation buffer value and therespective calculated journey time meets a predetermined relationshipwith respect to a time remaining from the current time to the start timeof the first vehicle request; g) automatically repeat performance ofsteps d), e) and f) at at least two different times for the firstvehicle request until it is determined at step f) that there is a needto allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request; h) ondetermining at step f) that there is a need to allocate a vehicleresource to the first vehicle request, automatically select a vehicleresource of the (Z) candidate vehicle resources to allocate to the firstvehicle request based on the respective scores calculated on lastperformance of step d); and i) in response to selecting the vehicleresource at h), automatically transmit a signal to a vehicle resourcedevice associated with the selected vehicle resource, the signalindicating that the selected vehicle resource is to proceed to the startlocation included with the first vehicle request, to fulfill the firstvehicle request.
 22. An apparatus for allocating networked vehicleresources to vehicle requirements, the apparatus comprising: aprocessor; and a computer-readable medium in communication with theprocessor, the computer-readable medium storing instructions that whenexecuted by the processor direct the processor to: dynamically select atime-ahead value (X) representing a predetermined time ahead of a starttime associated with a first vehicle request at which to begin anallocation process for the first vehicle request; after dynamicallyselecting the time-ahead value (X), automatically determine that adifference between a current time and the start time associated with thefirst vehicle request is not greater than the time-ahead value (X); inresponse to the determining that the difference between the current timeand the start time associated with the first vehicle request is notgreater than the time-ahead value (X), automatically detect a respectivecurrent location for each vehicle resource of the plurality of vehicleresources; automatically determine a respective direct distance from therespective current location of each vehicle resource of the plurality ofvehicle resources, to a start location associated with the first vehiclerequest; and after determining the respective direct distance to thestart location for each vehicle resource, automatically select apredetermined number (Y) of vehicle resources based on the respectivedirect distances to the start location and based on respective vehicleresource statuses associated with the vehicle resources, and withoutcalculating respective routes and travel distances to the start locationfor each vehicle resource, thereby forming a pool of (Y) pluralcandidate vehicle resources, each of said candidate vehicle resourcesbeing for possible fulfillment of the first vehicle request; at a firstgiven time, for each said candidate vehicle resource in the pool of (Y)plural candidate vehicle resources, calculate a respective first scorethat is related to the suitability of the candidate vehicle resource tofulfil the first vehicle request, wherein the suitability is withoutregard to the respective journey time of each candidate vehicle resourceto the start location; at the first given time, for each of only anumber (Z) of the candidate vehicle resources in the pool of (Y) pluralcandidate vehicle resources selected based on their respective scoresand a threshold score, automatically calculate a respective firstjourney time from a respective first vehicle location associated withthe candidate vehicle resource to the start location associated with thefirst vehicle request; at a second given time that is different from andafter the first given time, for each candidate vehicle resource in thepool of (Y) plural candidate vehicle resources, calculate a respectivesecond score that is related to the suitability of the candidate vehicleresource to fulfil the first vehicle request, wherein the suitability iswithout regard to the respective journey time of each candidate vehicleresource to the start location; at the second given time, for each ofonly a number (Z) of the candidate vehicle resources in the pool of (Y)plural candidate vehicle resources, calculate a respective secondjourney time from a respective second vehicle location associated withthe candidate vehicle resource to the start location associated with thefirst vehicle request; upon making the determinations at the secondgiven time, automatically determine that there is a need to allocate avehicle resource to the first vehicle request, using both: 1) therespective second scores calculated for the (Z) candidate vehicleresources of the pool of (Y) plural candidate vehicle resources, and 2)the calculated one or more respective second journey times for the (Z)candidate vehicle resources, wherein automatically determining thatthere is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehiclerequest comprises: determining that the respective second scorecalculated for a candidate vehicle resource is better than respectivesecond scores calculated for all other candidate vehicle resources ofthe (Z) candidate vehicle resources; determining, for the candidatevehicle resource having the best respective score, an allocation buffervalue by performing one of the following:  multiplying the respectivecalculated journey time from that candidate vehicle resource'sassociated vehicle location to the start location by a predeterminedfactor,  determining a fixed time value, or  calculating a sum of anumber of values, each value corresponding to a respective zone throughwhich the candidate vehicle resource would need to travel to reach thestart location; determining, for the candidate vehicle resource havingthe best respective second score, a sum of the allocation buffer valuefor that candidate vehicle resource and the respective calculated secondjourney time from that candidate vehicle resource's associated secondvehicle location to the start location included in the first vehiclerequest; and determining that the sum of the allocation buffer value andthe respective calculated second journey time meets a predeterminedrelationship with respect to a time remaining from the current time tothe start time of the first vehicle request; after determining thatthere is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehiclerequest, automatically allocate to the first vehicle request thecandidate vehicle resource of the (Z) candidate vehicle resources havingthe best respective second score; and in response to automaticallyallocating the vehicle resource, automatically transmit a signal to avehicle resource device associated with the allocated vehicle resource,the signal indicating that the allocated vehicle resource is to proceedto the start location associated with the first vehicle request, tofulfill the first vehicle request.
 23. The system of claim 1, whereinthe instructions when executed by the at least one processor direct theat least one processor to dynamically select, by the vehicle resourceallocation module, a time-ahead value (X) based on at least one of thefollowing: a priority associated with the first vehicle request, and adensity of vehicle resources of the plurality of vehicle resourceswithin a geographical zone in which the start location is present,wherein the density is based on the respective current locations of theplurality of vehicle resources monitored by the vehicle resourcelocation monitoring module.
 24. The method of claim 20, whereindynamically selecting, by the vehicle resource allocation controllerdevice, a time-ahead value (X) based on at least one of the following: apriority associated with the first vehicle request, and a density ofvehicle resources of the plurality of vehicle resources within ageographical zone in which the start location is present, wherein thedensity is based on the respective current locations of the plurality ofvehicle resources.
 25. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein theinstructions when executed by the processor direct the processor todynamically select a time-ahead value (X) based on at least one of thefollowing: a priority associated with the first vehicle request, and adensity of vehicle resources of the plurality of vehicle resourceswithin a geographical zone in which the start location is present,wherein the density is based on the respective current locations of theplurality of vehicle resources.
 26. The apparatus of claim 22, whereinthe instructions when executed by the processor direct the processor todynamically select a time-ahead value (X) based on at least one of thefollowing: a priority associated with the first vehicle request, and adensity of vehicle resources of the plurality of vehicle resourceswithin a geographical zone in which the start location is present,wherein the density is based on the respective current locations of theplurality of vehicle resources.